Columbia  <Bmt*r£itj> 

THE  LIBRARIES 


Bequest  of 

Frederic  Bancroft 

1860-1945 


/O  y 


2-  — 


AURA  CLAIRE  SHOWERS. 


IRev,  Hura  Claire  ©bowers, 

A  SKETCH  OF  HIS  LIFE 
BY    HIS    WIFE, 



r 

TOGETHER  WITH 

RIBUTES  BY  MINISTERIAL  BRETHREN. 


TO    WHICH    IS   ADDED   A   TREATISE   ON 
THE   DOCTRINE    OF 

ETERNAL  PUNISHMENT 

AND    OTHER    UNPUBLISHED 
MANUSCRIPTS. 

■ 


0  i     i  - 

i  pyiiLigrtBD  jy  .       ■ 
ri.  D.  VV.  Showers,  Oil  Citv,  Pa., 


13$. C 


PUBLISHING    HOUSE    OF 

THE  EARNEST  CHRISTIAN , 

NORTH    CHILI,    N.    Y. 


/C 


flntro&uction. 


In  deference  to  the  wishes  of  many  friends  to 
have  some  lasting  memorial  of  Mr.  Showers, 
this  volume  is  issued  from  the  press. 

The  sketch  of  his  life,  briefly  written,  in  the 
eloquent  language  of  affection,  tells  in  substance 
the  story  of  a  marked  career,  too  brief  according 
to  human  thoughts. 

It  has  fallen  to  the  writer  to  revise  the  unpub- 
lished MSS.  for  the  press.  Had  the  author  been 
spared  to  do  this  work,  it  would  have  been  better 
done,  for  the  active  brain  of  the  writer  best 
knows  his  own  thought,  and  such  work  done  by 
another  is  at  best  a  makeshift. 

The  MSS.  of  the  Treatise  on  Eternal  Punish- 
ment was  practically  complete.  However,  the 
analysis  and  divisions  into  parts  was  made  in  this 
office.  Possibly  the  writer  would  have  expanded 
the  concluding  chapters  before  publication. 

The  sermon  outlines  were  made  solely  for  the 
writer's  own  use,  and  the  reader  must  expect  the 
divisions  would  be  suggestive  of  more  to  the 
speaker  and  author  than  to  the  reader.  They 
reveal  the  workings  of  his  mind  to  a  remarkable 
extent. 

We  bespeak  for  this  Memorial  Volume  the  in- 


INTRODUCTION. 

diligence  that  sucli  a  work  must  command,  as  it 
is  purely  the  outcome  of  affection.  Especially  do 
we  bespeak  a  kindly  reception  for  the  manuscript 
posthumously  published,  not  knowing  what 
changes  would  have  been  suggested  to  the 
writer's  mind  in  the  work  of  revision  for  publi- 
cation. 

Benson  Howard  Roberts. 

Office  of 

The  Earnest  Christian, 

North  Chili,  N.  Y. 


Contents. 


i. 

SKETCH    OF   THE   LIFE   OF    AURA     CLAIRE 

SHOWERS,  -----  1-32 

II. 

FRATERNAL   TRIBUTES : 

Rev.  D.  B.  Tobey,         -  -        32-38 

Rev.  J.  S.  McGeary,  -            39-42 

Rev.  J.  Barnhart,       -  -        42-47 

B.  H.  Roberts,           -  -           47-50 

Rev.  W.  A.  Sellew,    -  -        50-52 
III. 

TREATISE   ON   ETERNAL   PUNISHMENT. 

PART  I. 
DOCTRINE    of    future   punishment   in 

RELATION   TO    GOVERNMENT. 

CHAPTER  I. 

RETRIBUTIVE   JUSTICE   NECESSARY   TO  GOVERN- 
MENT. -  -  58-6] 
CHAPTER  II. 

ILLUSTRATED    IN   THE   FAMILY.  -  -  62T66 

CHAPTER  III. 

APPLIED    IN   CIVIL   GOVERNMENT.         -  -      67-77 

CHAPTER  IV. 

MANIFESTED  IN  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  GOD.      77-88 

PART  II. 
TESTIMONY     OF     HEATHEN,    JEWISH     AND 
CHRISTIAN    WRITERS. 


CONTEXTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

NON-CHRISTIAN    BELIEFS.  -  -  -        88-104 

CHAPTER  II. 

JEWISH  BELIEFS.  -----  104-115 

CHAPTER  III. 

PHASES   OF   UNORTHODOX   BELIEFS.        -         116-119 

CHAPTER  IV. 

EARLY  BELIEF  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  120-128 

CHAPTER  V. 

TESTIMONY    OF   LATER   PATRISTIC   AXD    SCHO- 
LASTIC WRITERS.  -  -  -  129-133 
CHAPTER  VI. 

INDIVIDUAL      CREEDS      AXD      OPINIONS     OF 

SYXODS.  -  -  134-141 

CHAPTER  VII. 
CONCLUSION.  -----  142-144 

IV 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

LIXES  BY  REV.  M.  L.  SCHOOLEY.  -  145 

I. 
SERMON  AT  OPEXIXG  OF  HOPE  MISSION.         146-148 

II. 
EMOTIONAL    RELIGION    VS.     EMOTION    IN    RE- 
LIGION. -----  159-164 
III. 

SERMON  OUTLINES.  -  165-172 

IV. 

HYMNS.  -  -  173-176 


I. 

AURA  CLAIRE  SHOWERS. 


SKETCH    OF    HIS    LIFE 
BY    HIS    WIFE. 


Hura  Claire  ©bowers. 


A  SKETCH  BY  HIS  WIFE. 


N  the  21st  of  June,  18G8,  just  as  the  sun  in 
all  his  evening  glory  was  sinking  behind 
the  western  horizon,  Aura  Claire  Showers  was 
born  in  the  pleasant  little  town  of  Orangeville, 
Ohio. 

No  child  could  have  found  a  warmer  welcome 
or  been  more  carefully  cherished  ;  but  it  seemed 
as  week  after  week  the  little  one  was  carried 
about  on  a  pillow,  that  he  had  only  come  to 
earth  for  a  very  brief  stay. 

A  film  began  to  grow  over  his  eyes  when  but 
a  few  days  old  and  gradually  covered  them  so 
that  he  was  almost  completely  blind.  No  pains 
or  money  were  spared  to  save  his  life  and  restore 
his  sight.  A  specialist  from  Warren,  Ohio,  was 
finally  secured  and  the  parents  wrere  gratified  to 
see  the  film  gradually  disappear  from  the  child's 
eyes  and  the  little  body  daily  growing  stronger. 
God's  providence  had   designed  him  to  be  the 


2 

instrument  through  which  many  souls  should  be 
turned  to  Himself. 

We  need  not  dwell  on  his  child  life.  It  was 
soon  seen  that  God  had  endowed  him  with  a 
bright  intellect  and  an  amiable  and  cheerful 
disposition.  As  a  young  man  he  was  fond  of 
society,  of  which  his  attractive  person,  gay  dis- 
position and  ready  wit  made  him  a  welcome 
member.  It  was  characteristic  of  him  to  put  his 
whole  soul  into  whatever  he  undertook,  and  in 
this  manner  he  sought  to  find  satisfaction  in  the 
world.  He  matured  rapidly  so  that  at  an  early 
age  he  had  tasted  its  pleasures  and  discovered 
their  inability  to  give  real  or  lasting  joy. 

His  Christian  parents  had  ever  striven  to  lead 
him  into  the  ways  of  righteousness ;  but  the  al- 
lurements of  the  world  led  him  captive  until  in 
the  year  1886  at  the  age  of  seventeen  years,  the 
Holy  Spirit  so  strove  with  him  and  convicted  him 
of  his  sins  that  he  eagerly  repented  of  them, 
turned  to  God  and  found  pardon.  It  was  at  a 
revival  meeting  at  Sharps ville,  Pa.,  his  home  at 
that  time,  in  the  old  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
that  he  was  converted  to  God.  He  had  gone  to 
the  meeting  with  one  of  his  young  friends  out  of 
mere  curiosity.  He  sat  in  the  back  part  of  the 
church  during  the  service,  careless  and  indif- 
ferent. But  while  the  evangelist  was  inviting  sin- 
ners to  come  to  Christ,  he  became  so  convicted  of 


;; 

his  sinfulness  that  he  hurried  to  the  altar  and 
urged  his  friend  to  go  with  him;  but; in  vain.  On 
his  way  he  saw  another  friend  and  stopped  and 
also  urged  him  to  go.  The  young  man  went  and 
they  were  both  gloriously  converted.  In  speak- 
ing of  his  conversion  afterwards  Mr.  Showers 
would  relate,  how  after  truly  repenting  of  his' 
sins  and  giving  himself  unreservedly  -to  God, 
without  waiting  for  feeling,  he  arose  and  pub- 
licly took  Christ  for  his  Saviour.  The  Holy 
Spirit  immediately  so  filled  his  body  that  he  could 
feel  His  wonderful  presence  all  through  him,  and 
he  shouted  and  praised  God  with  a  loud  voice. 
Those  who  witnessed  his  conversion  say,  that  as 
he  arose  to  testify  for  Christ,  he  was  so  wonder- 
fully baptized  of  the  Spirit  that  many  hardened 
sinners  as  well  as  the  saints  of  God,  were  moved 
to  tears  by  the  words  he  uttered.  At  the  close  of 
these  meetings  he  united  with  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  of , Sharpsville,  Pa.,  in  Janu- 
ary, L886.  From  this  time  we  may  date. his  real 
career.  God's  hand  was  upon  him.  His  Heavenly 
Father  did  not  intend  that  his  pilgrimage  should 
be  long  upon  the  earth,  so  He  led  him  on.  rapidly 
in  the  divine  life. 

In  June.  L886,  he  graduated  with  honor  from  the 
high  school  of  Sharpsville,  after  which  he  was  en- 
gaged in  his  father's  store  of  general  merchandise- 
There  was  a  small  elass  of  Free  Methodists  in 


the  town.  When  the  Showers  family  heard  of 
them,  they  frequently  attended  their  meetings, 
attracted  thither  by  the  presence  of  God  among 
them.  They  had  not  attended  the  meetings  many 
times  before  Mr.  Showers  felt  led  to  unite  with 
the  little  company  though  but  few  and  lightly  es- 
teemed. He  was  somewhat  surprised  to  be  refused 
when  h  ^requested  admittance.  Among  other  arti- 
cles sold  in  his  father's  store  was  tobacco.  As  a 
clerk  it  was  frequently  necessary  for  him  to  sell  it  ; 
although  his  father,  already  convicted  of  the  evil 
of  its  use.  was  merely  endeavoring  to  close  out 
the  stock  on  hand.  The  minister  kindly  but 
firmly  stated  that  a  person  could  not  be  received 
into  the  church  while  engaging  in  the  sale  of  this 
article.  This,  Mr.  Showers  felt,  was  a  right  stand 
for  the  church  to  take,  so  he  told  his  father  that 
he  could  not  remain  longer  in  the  store  unless 
the  tobacco  was  gotten  rid  of  at  once.  Where- 
upon his  father  immediately  disposed  of  it. 
Shortly  after  not  only  he  but  also  his  parents  and 
sister  were  received  by  letter,  into  the  Free  Meth- 
odist Church  in  May,  1886. 

The  same  devotion  that  characterized  the  life 
of  Mr.  Showers  in  his  pursuit  of  worldly  pleasures 
was  just  as  apparent  in  his  service  to  Christ  from 
the  very  beginning.  He  allowed  nothing  to  con- 
flict with  the  will  of  God.  His  own  desires  and 
ambitions  were  made  subservient  to  the  Divine 


will.  Herein,  doubtless,  lies  the  secret  of  his 
rapid  spiritual  growth.  Like  Paul,  he  conferred 
not  with  flesh  and  blood;  hut  every  call  of  the 
divine  voice  was  readily  and  cheerfully  obeyed 
at  the  sacrifice  of  every  earthly  interest.  This 
was  clearly  manifested  in  the  readiness  with  which 
he  obeyed  his  call  to  the  ministry.  During  these 
first  few  months  of  his  Christian  experience,  God 
had  been  preparing  him  for  a  wider  sphere  of 
usefulness.  From  the  time  of  his  conversion  he 
had  an  intense  desire  to  win  souls  for  Christ. 
The  vastness  of  the  work  now  began  to  dawn 
upon  him  more  and  more  clearly  and  the  oppor- 
tunities afforded  by  a  commercial  life  seemed  too 
limited  to  his  zealous  mind.  Accordingly,  he 
determined  to  study  medicine,  a  profession  that 
would  not  only  afford  him  greater  opportunities 
of  usefulness,  but  also  one  to  which  he  naturally 
inclined.  He  made  arrangements  with  Dr. 
Williams,  a  prominent  physician  of  the  place  in 
which  he  lived,  to  study  with  him.  The  neces- 
sary books  were  ordered  and  he  was  only  awaiting- 
their  arrival  to  begin  work  :  when  one  day,  just 
after  leaving  the  doctor's  office,  he  (dearly  and 
unmistakably  received  the  Spirit's  call  to  preach 
the  Gospel.  Without  questioning  the  will  of 
God,  lie  immediately  returned  to  the  doctor's 
office,  told  him  of  his  clear  call  to  preach,  and 
requested   him   to   countermand  his    order    for 


books,'  and  release  him  from  his  engagement. 
He  clearly  entered  into  the  experience  of  entire 
sanctification  August  IT.  1887. 

Feeling  the  need  of  the  spiritual  as  well  as 
the  intellectual  benefit  of  one  of  our  Christian 
schools;  in  the  fall  of  1887,  God's  providence 
opened  the  way  for  him  to  attend  the  A.  M. 
Chesbrough  Seminary.  The  commission  to  the 
disciples  "As  ye  go,  preach/'  seemed  to  be  his 
commission  also.  Although  he  applied  himself 
faithfully  to  his  studies,  he  never  allowed  them 
to  cause  him  to  neglect  his  duties  to  Christ, 
or  forget  his  calling.  However  difficult  his  class 
work  might  be  one  could  always  see  him  at  the 
student's  evening  prayer  service  and  every  other 
meeting  unless  unavoidably  detained.  Although 
so  young  in  experience,  it  was  wonderful  what 
progress  he  had  made  in  the  divine  life  and  how 
clearly  he  understood  the  word  of  God. 

The  following  summer  vacation  he  spent  in  at- 
tending camp-meetings  and  other  active  work 
for  the  Master— preaching  and  working  as  one 
who  felt'  the  precious  worth  of  time  and  of  souls. 
The  following  year,  1888,  he  attended  Spring 
Arbor  Seminaiy,  from  which  school  he  was 
graduated  in  June  of  1889. 

After  graduation  he  returned  to  his  home  and 
entered  with  all  his  powers  into  the  work  of  the 
Lord.     Throughout  the  summer  he  labored  un- 


tiringly   in   camp-meetings   and  grove-meetings 
where  he  doubtless  won  many  to  Jesus. 

In  the  fall  of  1889,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years,  he  joined  the  Pittsburg  Conference.  He 
had  so  developed  in  knowledge  of  God  and 
strength  of  Christian  character  that  the  Confer- 
ence  scut  him  to  the  Oil  City  charge.  It  was 
just  about  this  time  that  Rev.  R.  W.  Hawkins, 
now  deceased,  said  of  him,  "We  will  not  have 
Brother  Showers  with  us  long."  When  asked 
for  his  reason  for  speaking  thus  he  replied,  "  He 
is  maturing  too  fast,  he  will  soon  be  ripe  for 
Heaven." 

Rev.  D.  B.  Tobey,  District  Elder  of  the  Oil 
City  district,  says  of  him  at  this  time,  ' '  I  was  at 
once  powerfully  impressed  with  his  brilliancy 
and  solidity.  His  religious  experience  and  gen- 
eral demeanor  denoted  a  deeper  knowledge  of 
divine  things  and  a  clearer  understanding  of 
man's  relation  and  accountability  to  God  than  is 
often  seen  in  men  of  twice  or  thrice  his  age,"  and 
the  ministers  of  the  Conference  in  general  were 
astonished  at  his  depth  of  thought,  clear  and 
prompt  delivery  and  spiritual  discernment. 

His  work  in  Oil  City  was  marked  by  the  help 
of  God.  He  soon  had  the  hearts  of  his  people. 
During  the  winter  he  held  a  series  of  revival 
meetings  that  stirred  the  whole  city.  Rev.  V. 
A.    Dake  assisted    in    these    meetings    for    five 


8 

weeks.  As  a  result  of  their  united  efforts 
probably  more  than  a  hundred  souls  were  con- 
verted, many  believers  were  sanctified,  and  a 
large  number  were  added  to  the  church. 

So  frequently  were  large  crowds  turned  away 
from  the  church  because  of  lack  of  room  that 
before  the  year  closed  an  addition  was  built  to  it 
and  paid  for,  to  accommodate  tiie  congregations. 
During  this  year  he  also  held  a  series  of  meetings 
at  Titusville,  eighteen  miles  from  Oil  City. 
Although  he  was  not  the  first  to  introduce  the 
work  in  that  place,  yet  it  was  due  to  his  efforts 
that  a  Free  Methodist  class  was  formed  there. 
He  rented  an  old  store  room,  the  only  place  then 
available,  in  which  to  hold  the  meetings.  It  was 
so  dirty  that  it  kept  the  young  minister  busy  all 
day  cleaning  it  and  preparing  it  for  the  evening 
service.  In  spite  of  bitter  opposition  from  the 
rough  class  and  the  family  who  occupied  the 
rooms  above,  aided  only  by  a  few,  he  held  one  of 
the  most  successful  of  revivals  that  place  ever 
witnessed.  Some  who  became  pillars  of  the  Titus- 
ville church  were  gathered  in  at  that  time. 

He  was  returned  to  Oil  City  the  following  year, 
1890.  After  holding  another  successful  revival 
in  Oil  City,  he  began  meetings  in  Salem,  a  small 
village,  three  miles  distant.  Many  consecrated 
people,  young  and  old  alike,  went  in  large 
wagon  loads  and  on  foot  to  help  him  in  the  meet- 


ings.  A  good  sized  hall,  formerly  owned  by  the 
Good  Templars,  was  secured.  For  weeks  the 
country  was  stirred  for  miles  around.  There  had 
never  been  such  a  revival  before  in  the  history  of 
the  "place.  Deep  conviction  rested  upon  the  people. 
Through  the  day  Brother  Showers  had  some  of 
the  Oil  City  workers  assist  him  in  visiting  among 
the  people  and  at  night  he  preached  to  very  large 
and  eager  congregations.  Great  crowds  were 
usually  turned  away.  The  altar,  as  a  rule  was 
filled  with  penitent  souls  and  seekers  for  Holiness 
of  heart. 

Many  were  saved  and  sanctified  during  these 
meetings  and  a  good  sized  class  organized. 
Among  the  converts  was  a  man  who  is  now  one 
of  Salem's  most  respected  citizens.  Before  his 
conversion  he  was  a  confirmed  drunkard,  a  ter- 
ror to  his  wife  and  neighbors.  But  God's  Spirit 
drew  him  to  hear  the  truth  and  at  the  age  of 
sixty-three  years,  he  sought  and  found  pardon. 
The  Lord  took  away  his  appetite  for  tobacco  and 
Avhiskey  and  made  a  new  man  of  him.  He  now 
has  one  of  the  pleasantest  of  homes  and  two 
happier  and  more  devoted  Christians  than  he 
and  his  wife  would  be  difficult  to  find. 

On  September  Kith,  1891,  he  was  married  to 
Harriet  D.  W.  Slater  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  He 
was  ordained  deacon  at  Conference  several  weeks 
later  and  sent  to  the  Franklin  charge.     The  work 


10 

in  that  place  was  then  in  a  critical  condition 
owing  to  various  causes  and  required  much  wis- 
dom and  patience  to  hold  the  class  together.  The 
new  pastor  keenly  felt  the  need  of  God's  help  to 
discharge  his  duties  aright  and  the  needed  help 
was  granted  to  him.  God  gave  him  a  year  of 
blessing  and  victory.  During  the  winter  he  held 
a  long  series  of  revival  meetings.  Rev.  J.  G. 
Terrill  and  Mrs.  E.  Sellew  Roberts  assisted  in 
these  meetings  at  different  times.  Quite  a  large 
number  were  converted  and  joined  the  church 
who  are  still  standing  true.  Many  were  sanctified 
and  the  church  in  general  was  strengthened. 
During  that  year  Rev.  J.  P.  Brodhead,  now  a  very 
acceptable  minister  in  the  Pittsburg  Conference, 
and  his  wife,  also  Sister  Sanf ord  and  Brother  and 
Sister  Tourtelotte,  all  respected  members  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  joined  the  Free 
Methodist  Church.  During  that  winter  he  also 
held  revival  meetings  at  Cochranton,  a  town 
about  twenty  miles  from  Franklin.  The  meet- 
ings lasted  for  a  number  of  weeks  and  at  the 
close  Brother  Showers  organized  a  small  class 
of  about  ten  members,  to  whom  he  preached 
once  a  week  throughout  the  remainder  of  the 
year. 

The  following  year,  1892,  Conference  returned 
him  to  Oil  City.  He  was  in  poor  health  through- 
out the  year.     Besides,  his  wife  suffered  for  six 


11 

weeks  with  typhoid  fever  and  his  darling  baby 
lay  for  two  months  with  a  wasting  disease:  at 
the  end  of  which  time  God  took  her.  Yel 
through  it  all  God  helped  his  servant  to  keep  a 
victorious  spirit  and  drive  the  battle  on.  During 
the  winteT  he  held  a  very  successful  revival  meet- 
in-,  assisted  by  Rev.  John  (VRegan.  The  church 
was  crowded  every  night.  Many  stood  during 
the  services  in  the  aisles  and  back  part  of  the 
church,  while  crowds  were  turned  away  from 
the  door.  The  penitent  form  was  usually  filled 
with  contrite  seekers  for  pardon  or  purity. 
These  meetings  resulted  in  much  good,  and  the 
influence  of  them  is  still  felt.  He  also  held  an- 
other  meeting  at  Salem,  which  resulted  in 
strengthening  and  encouraging  the  little  class  at 
that  place. 

He  was  ordained  elder  at  the  New  Brighton 
Conference  in  the  fall  of  1803.  At  bis  request 
he  was  made  Conference  evangelist.  He  thought 
that  he  might  in  this  way  get  a  short  rest  and 
regain  his  health  to  some  extent  before  the  re- 
vival season  should  commence.  But  the  requests 
from  the  New  Brighton  class,  for  him  to  take  the 
pastorate,  which  had  been  left  to  be  supplied, 
were  so  strong,  that  he  finally  consented  to  do  so, 
after  being  urged  by  the  district  elder.  Rev.  D. 
B.  Tobey,  also. 

Brother    Tobey    writes    thus    concerning    it  : 


12 

"  Brother  Showers  consented  to  fill  the  appoint- 
ment at  New  Brighton  for  a  few  weeks  nntil  a 
supply  could  be  secured.  After  his  second  trip 
he  called  at  my  home  and  said,  *  Brother  Tobey, 
if  you  still  insist  upon  it,  and  think  that  I  am  the 
right  man  to  go  to  New  Brighton,  I  will  go,  for 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no 
rest  for  me  in  this  life.  I  feel  better  when  I  am 
at  work  than  I  do  when  I  try  to  rest.  I  will  take 
my  place  and  die  at  my  post/  Accordingly  he 
moved  his  family  to  New  Brighton  where  he 
spent  one  of  the  most  profitable  and  fruitful 
years  of  his  life.  The  work  was  comparatively 
new  in  that  place.  The  church  was  centrally 
located  and  vast  congregations  assembled  to  hear 
the  Gospel.  It  would  be  impossible  to  place  an 
estimate  upon  the  good  that  was  done  by  his 
preaching  that  year.  He  stood  like  a  brave 
soldier  and  without  fear  or  favor  declared  the 
whole  counsel  of  God. 

"  It  will  be  safe  to  say  that  his  influence  on 
that  charge  that  year  is  already  so  wide  spread 
that  you  can  scarcely  visit  a  town  or  hamlet 
within  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  of  New  Brighton, 
but  you  will  find  some  souls  that  have  been 
brought  out  into  the  light  through  his  teachings. 
I  was  recently  introduced  to  a  gentleman  from 
Ellwood  City.  He  smiled  and  said,  '  I  have  seen 
you  before.    I  was  a  member  of  a  popular  church 


13 

but  used  to  go  privately  to  New  Brighton  to  hear 
your  minister  (Brother  Showers).  I  always  took 
a  back  seat.  I  was  there  when  the  power  of  God 
was  so  wonderfully  displayed  on  that  last  night 
of  the  Holiness  Convention.  That  finished  me. 
I  now  have  that  power  within  my  soul  and  am  a 
Free  Methodist  on  my  way  to  Heaven.'  Many 
incidents  of  a  like  nature  might  be  noticed." 

His  year  at  that  place  was  one  of  almost  con- 
stant revival.  Throughout  almost  the  entire 
winter  there  were  meetings  in  the  church  every 
night.  Rev.  Oliver  Gornell,  who  assisted  in  the 
meetings  for  some  weeks,  estimates  that  there 
were  not  less  than  five  hundred  at  the  penitent 
form  during  the  meetings.  A  great  many  were 
clearly  converted  and  almost  as  many  more 
wholly  sanctified.  A  highly  respected  lady  and 
her  sixteen  year  old  daughter  were  clearly  saved. 
The  father  bitterly  opposed  them  and  treated 
them  very  harshly,  even  beating  his  daughter 
and  threatening  to  kill  her  if  she  persisted  in 
going  to  the  Free  Methodist  Church.  He  was 
also  greatly  enraged  against  the  minister  because 
it  was  under  his  preaching  that  the  lady  and  her 
daughter  had  become  Christians.  This  man's 
wrath  caused  Brother  Showers  to  fully  realize 
what  it  meant  to  be  reviled  and  persecuted  and 
to  have  all  manner  of  evil  said  against  him 
falsely,  for  Christ's  sake.     Desiring,  if  possible, 


14 

to  he  a  help  to  him  and  to  win  him  to  Christ, 
he  took  advantage  of  patronizing  him  in  his 
"business  in  order  to  obtain  an  interview  with 
him.  As  soon  as  the  man  learned  his  name  he 
flew  into  a  rage  and  vehemently  abused  and 
threatened  him.  He  listened  calmly  until  the 
man  finished  and  then  kindly  but  firmly  told 
him  he  was  wrong  and  urged  him  to  come  to 
church  and  see  for  himself.  He  told  him  he 
ought  to  allow  his  family  to  save  their  souls 
at  any  rate  and  assured  him  that  he  would  stand 
by  them  in  spite  of  threats  or  anything  he  could 
do.  The  man  was  chagrined  and  beaten  but  still 
continued  to  oppose  his  family  until  his  daughter 
was  driven  from  home,  disowned  by  her  father, 
who,  it  is  said,  recorded  her  death  in  the  family 
record.  But,  thank  God,  she  is  not  dead,  she  is 
now  in  the  A.  M.  Chesbrough  Seminary  prepar- 
ing herself  to  work  for  Christ.  Both  mother 
and  daughter  are  saved  and  loyal  members  of 
the  Free  Methodist  Church,  and  through  tribula- 
tion are  washing  their  robes  and  making  them 
white,  ready  to  meet  the  Bridegroom  and  join 
the  Heavenly  company  "  where  the  wicked  cease 
from  troubling  and  the  weary  are  at  rest." 

After  the  special  meetings  were  closed  in  the 
church,  cottage  prayer  meetings  were  begun; 
and  during  the  spring  and  summer  there  was 
usually  an  evening  prayer  meeting  in  the  home 


15 

of  some  of  the  members,  every  evening  when 
there  was  not  a  meeting  at  the  church.  Often 
unsaved  people,  burdened  by  their  sins,  would 
request  that  the  prayer  meeting  be  held  at  then- 
homes.  It  was  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception, 
in  these  meetings,  that  people  were  saved  to  God 
and  sanctified.  Brother  Showers  always  made  it 
a  practice  to  attend  these  cottage  meetings  when- 
ever it  was  possible  for  him  to  do  so. 

In  Ma^  of  that  year  an  eight  day  Holiness  con- 
vention was  held  in  the  Free  Methodist  Church 
of  New  Brighton.  There  was  a  very  large  at- 
tendance throughout  the  entire  convention. 
Almost  all  the  ministers  and  workers  of  the  dis- 
trict, the  district  elders  of  the  Conference,  and 
Rev.  B.  H.  Roberts,  Rev.  J.  S.  McGeary,  and 
others  from  a  distance,  were  present.  It  was  a 
season  of  remarkable  enlightenment  and  en- 
couragement to  all.  Many  entered  into  the 
blessed  state  of  holiness  of  heart.  The  last  night 
especially,  will  ever  be  memorable  to  all  who 
were  present,  After  the  sermon,  seekers  began 
to  rush  to  the  altar  before  the  invitation  was 
given  and  soon  the  whole  front  of  the  church  was 
filled.  Not  only  were  God's  children  burdened 
for  pure  hearts,  but  sinners  were  so  powerfully 
convicted  of  their  sins  thai  when  there  was  no 
longer  room  in  front,  people  knelt  in  the  aisles 
and  in  their  seats  praying  to  God  for  mercy  and 


.16 

for  clean  hearts.  A  camp-meeting  was  also  held 
in  that  place  that  year.  It  was  an  unusually 
large  meeting.  Over  four  hundred  persons  were 
in  the  tents  on  the  ground.  Much  good  was  done 
and  seed  sown  that  is  still  springing  into  sight. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  Mr.  Showers'  health 
was  so  poor  that  he  decided  to  move  with  his 
family  to  California,  thinking  that  a  change  of 
climate  would  benefit  him.  His  parents  and 
friends,  however,  whom  he  visited  on  his  way  to 
Conference  opposed  his  going  and  dissuaded  him 
from  it.  He  then  decided  to  request  Conference 
to  leave  him  without  appointment  for  one  year. 
He  had  already  commenced  a  book  on  "Hell." 
He  thought  that  a  year  without  work  would 
enable  him  to  finish  it  and  at  the  same  time  afford 
him  an  opportunity  to  regain  his  health.  Con- 
ference, however,  did  not  grant  his  request  but 
made  him  District  Elder  of  the  New  Castle  dis- 
trict. He  did  not  seek  this  position.  On  the 
contrary  he  would  have  resigned  it  at  once  had 
not  his  friends,  who  knew  of  his  intentions,  per- 
suaded him  to  let  the  Conference  decide  for  him. 
He  ever  had  a  fear  of  getting  out  of  the  order  of 
the  Lord,  and  although  he  felt  the  weakness  of 
his  body,  he  obeyed  the  voice  of  the  Conference, 
gave  up  his  expectation  of  a  year's  rest  from 
active  work,  and  entered  upon  the  work  of  his 
district  with  all  his  powers.     God  honored  his 


17 

faithfulness  and  revived  his  strength.  Through- 
out the  entire  year  he  grew  more  and  more 
Christlike.  His  gentleness  and  teachableness 
were  remarkable.  He  had  implicit  confidence  in 
the  ministers  of  his  district  and  had  the  welfare 
of  every  one  of  them  greatly  at  heart.  He  humbly 
and  prayerfully  sought  to  be  a  real  benefit  in 
upbuilding  every  circuit  on  his  district.  He  loved 
God's  Zion  as  his  own  soul  and  zealously  watched 
over  and  prayed  for  it.  As  he  went  about  from 
circuit  to  circuit  he  earnestly  studied  the  needs 
of  the  people  and  endeavored  to  give  them  just 
the  Spiritual  food  that  would  build  them  up  in 
the  most  holy  faith.  He  seemed  to  take  especial 
pains  with  the  small  classes.  Whenever  he 
noticed  signs  of  discord  or  spiritual  decline,  he 
became  greatly  burdened  and  would  hold  on  to 
God  in  faith  and  prayer,  until  Christ's  Spirit  pre- 
vailed. 

Of  his  work  on  the  district,  Brother  Tobey 
writes  thus  :  "In  subjection  to  his  Conference, 
lie  threw  all  the  faculties  of  his  three-fold  being 
into  the  work  of  the  New  Castle  district.  There 
were  some  things  connected  with  the  work  that 
made  it  very  difficult  to  preside  over,  and  would 
call  into  action  every  power  and  faculty  of  the 
most  able  mind.  But  he  was  so  perfectly  master 
of  the  most  perilous  situation  that,  under  God, 
he  was  able  to  meet  and  dispose  of  the  most  in- 


18 

tricate  cases  and  he  settled  matters  so  that  they 
would  stay  settled.  After  passing  through  one- 
of  the  most  trying  ordeals  at  one  of  his  district 
quarterly  meetings,  although  he  had  been  labor- 
ing hard  until  about  midnight  Saturday  night 
and  the  society  had  been  shaken  to  its  very 
centre,  on  Sabbath  morning,  after  the  love-feast, 
he  quietly  arose,  announced  his  text  from  Romans 
12:22,  and  proceeded  to  deliver  one  of  his  charac- 
teristic sermons  showing  clearly  the  principle  of 
righteousness  that  demands  nonconformity  to 
the  world.  Although  the  subject  was  foreign  to 
the  trouble  that  existed  there  at  that  time,  yet 
the  power  of  God  was  so  wonderfully  manifest 
and  the  preaching  so  supernatual  that  it  eclipsed 
all  the  trouble,  dispersed  every  cloud,  melted  the 
audience  to  tears,  and  the  powers  of  darkness  gave- 
way.  Justice,  righteousness  and  holiness  tri- 
umphed, every  saint  took  his  place,  and  the  work 
moved  on."  An  elder  remarked  at  the  close  of 
that  service,  "If  that  boy  keeps  his  health,  he 
will  soon  occupy  the  highest  position  of  the 
church.  No  bishop  could  handle  that  subject, 
better  than  it  was  handled  •this  morning."  As 
district  elder  he  succeeded  in  giving  character  to 
the  work  and  since  his  decease  the  work  has  gone 
steadily  forward." 

Brother  Tobey  also  writes,  "During  the  last 
seven,  and  especially  during  the  last  two,  years  of 


19 

his  short  but  eventful  life,  he  was  present  at 
nearly  every  camp-meeting,  holiness  convention 
and  meeting  of  importance  in  the  Conference 
always  leaving  his  impress  on  the  minds  of  the 
majority  of  tin*  pepple  who  heard  him  speak. 
He  was  present  at  the  Leechburg  Holiness  Con- 
vention last  summer.  The  people  by  whom  he 
was  entertained  although  non-professors  and 
previously  unacquainted  with  him,  were  so  won 
to  him,  that  had  they  heard  of  his  death  in  time^ 
they  would  have  attended  his  funeral  :  which. 
would  have  caused  them  to  travel  a  distance  of 
one  hundred  and  ten  miles  and  return.  I  also> 
attribute  to  the  words,  work,  and  general  in- 
fluence of  Brother  Showers  more  than  to  any 
other  instrument  used  of  God,  the  winning  of 
more  than  a  score  of  the  choicest  of  the  Pentecost 
workers,  who  were  sent  into  the  bounds  of  our 
Conference  together  with  a  large  number  who 
were  converted  under  their  labors.  Brother- 
Showers  had  the  confidence  of  these  dear  people.. 
He  seemed  to  explain  matters  to  them  so  clearly 
that  in  every  case  where  he  was  thrown  into  their 
society  they  were  drawn  towards  us.  He  attended 
both  the  camp-meetings  held  by  the  Pentecost 
Brethren  within  the  Pittsburg  district  during 
the  years  LS93,  '94,  and  .'95.  During  these  meet- 
ings it  was  not  an  uncommon  thing  to  see  him 
in  the  interval  of  public  services,  seated  beneath 


20 

some  shade  tree,  surrounded  by  a  group  of  from 
four  to  twelve  of  these  earnest  students,  eager  to 
catch  every  word  that  fell  from  his  lips.  After 
the  meetings  had  closed  and  he  had  gone,  such 
remarks  as  the  following  might  be  heard,  "  Isn't 
Brother  Showers  grand  ?  He  makes  every  thing 
so  plain  !  Hasn't  he  a  blessed  spirit  ?  How  I  do 
love  to  hear  him  talk  and  preach.  I  believe  I 
could  listen  to  him  all  day  and  not  get  tired," 
and  so  on.  But  eternity  alone  will  know  all  the 
work  of  his  hands  that  under  God  he  wrought. " 

The  last  summer  of  his  life  was  doubtless  the 
busiest  one  he  had  ever  spent  in  Christ's  service. 
Beside  holding  his  quarterly  meetings  he  attended 
four  camp-meetings,  several  grove  meetings  and 
holiness  convention.  At  each  of  these  meetings 
he  preached  at  least  twice,  usually  three  or  four 
times.  Some  times  he  would  feel  so  weary  and 
worn  in  body  at  the  close  of  one  meeting  that  he 
would  scarcely  see  how  he  would  get  to  the  next 
•one.  Then  the  Lord  would  so  touch  his  body 
that  he  would  some  times  say  he  never  felt  better 
in  his  life. 

The  last  camp-meeting  he  held  was  the  one  on 
his  own  district  held  in  Greenville,  Pa.  Although 
very  much  worn  in  body  he  labored  untiringly 
throughout  this  meeting.  He  felt  that  as  district 
elder,  it  rested  ujjon  him  particular}^  to  make  the 
•meeting  a  success  through  God's  help.     Regard- 


21 

less  of  his  feelings  lie  attended  all  the  early 
morning  meetings  and  was  present  for  a  portion, 
at  least,  of  every  ring  meeting  and  street  meet- 
ing, besides  almost  all  the  preaching  services. 
One  night  long  after  evening  services  had  closed, 
the  tenters  who  had  almost  all  retired  and  fallen 
asleep,  were  suddenly  aroused  by  loud  shouts, 
singing,  etc.  There  had  been  a  person  on  the 
grounds  at  different  times,  who  had  endeavored 
to  scatter  "wildfire."  Brother  Showers  did  not 
know  but  that  this  person  was  the  cause  of  the- 
noise.  He  immediately  arose,  dressed  himself, 
and  went  to  look  into  the  matter.  He  found  that 
an  earnest  and  persistent  seeker  after  holiness  of 
heart,  had  received  the  blessing  and  together 
with  his  tent  company  was  rejoicing  over  it. 
He  rejoiced  with  them  and  returned  to  his  bed 
to  get  the  rest  he  so  much  needed.  He  seemed 
so  gentle  and  unselfish.  During  this  meeting  one 
of  his  ministers  asked  him  how  he  was  feeling  in 
body.  He  replied  that  he  was  feeling  very  poorly 
but  added  "  don't  let  the  pilgrims  know  it. "  He 
feared  that  it  might  in  some  way  detract  from 
the  interest  of  the  meetings.  God's  blessing 
rested  upon  him  in  an  especial  manner. 

On  the  last  Sabbath  of  the  meeting  he  gave 
opportunity  for  any  who  might  desire  to  do 
so  to  unite  with  the  church.  A  successful 
revivalist  and  his  wife  and  six  or  seven  others 


22 

joined.  The  work  is  still  going  on  in  that 
vicinity  and  it  is  believed  that  it  will  not  be 
long  before  a  church  will  be  organized  in 
Greenville.  After  this  camp-meeting  closed  he 
went  to  Brookfield.  Ohio,  to  hold  a  Quarterly 
meeting.  The  work  was  new  in  this  place 
and  he  endeavored  to  make  the  meeting  one 
that  would*  upbuild  the  little  church.  This 
was  the  last  active  work  that  God  had  marked 
out  for  him  to  do.  Although  the  fatal  disease 
was  even  then  revealing  its  presence  in  his  weak- 
ened body,  he  summoned  all  his  powers  and  facul- 
ties to  the  work  that  was  to  be  done,  and  in  God's 
strength  went  through  as  though  he  were  strong 
and  well.  On  the  Sabbath  he  preached  twice 
and  immersed  seven  persons  in  a  small  body 
of  water  about  two  miles  from  the  chuich. 
Those  who  heard  him  preach  the  last  Sabbath 
say  that  God's  Spirit  was  wonderfully  manifest 
in  his  words.  Especially  the  last  sermon  held 
the  people  spell  hound.  Deep  conviction  rested 
upon  them  and  God's  message  will  not  soon  be 
forgotten  -by  the  large  congregation  who  listened 
that  night.  After  the  night's  service  he  returned 
to  his  brother-in-law's  home  and.  although  the 
hour  was  late,  and  all  were  tired  in  body.  God's 
Spirit  seemed  to  be  on  His  servant 'so  manifestly 
that  none  of  them  cared  to  retire.  His  sister  and 
her  husband  little  knew  that  they  were  listening 


23 

to  the  parting  words  of  their  brother  to  them,  as 
they  eagerly  communed  with  him  on  the  things 
•of  God.  He  was  the  youngest  of  the  three,  but 
they  willingly  took  the  place  of  learners  before 
him.  His  favorite  theme  of  holiness  absorbed 
them  that  night  and  after  talking  over  the  won- 
derfulness  of  the  state  and  the  greatness  of  the 
profession  of  it,  he  humbly  but  firmly  and  sol- 
emnly testified  that  he  had  the  blessing. 

He  felt  concerned  about  a  certain  work  on  his 
district  and  the  next  morning  he  left  for  that 
work.  He  regulated  matters  as  far  as  possible 
and  remained  among  the  people  until  the  follow- 
ing day.  When  I  met  him  at  the  station  that 
afternoon  I  was  immediately  struck  with  the  fact 
that  my  precious  husband  was  unusually  filled 
with  the  Spirit.  He  had  ever  been  thoughtful, 
gentle,  and  noble,  but  that  day  he  excelled  all  the 
past.  His  character  never  seemed  so  grand  and 
Christ-like.  His  words  were  freighted  with  the 
love  of  Christ.  It  was  sometime  before  he  made 
it  known  that  he  was  feeling  unusually  bad  in 
body.  A  severe  pain  in  his  head  rapidly  grew 
worse  and  other  serious  symptoms  speedily  de- 
veloped. The  following  day  he  consulted  the 
doctor,  who  at  once  expressed  fears  that  he  was 
threatened  with  typhoid  fever.  Hoping  that 
the  doctor's  fears  were  groundless  he  endeavored 
to  so  care  for  himself  that  he  would  be  aide  to  go 


24 

to  his  next  Quarterly  meeting  over  the  Sabbath. 
His  heart  was  in  the  work.  He  did  not  like  to 
think  of  losing  any  time;  but  he  soon  saw  that, 
he  would  be  obliged  to  remain  at  home.  He  at 
once  arranged  for  one  of  his  brethren  to  hold  the 
meeting.  Not  only  did  he  attend  to  securing 
some  one  to  hold  this  meeting,  but  dictated 
various  letters  concerning  the  work.  His  head 
was  racked  with  pain  and  he  could  scarcely  think, 
still  he  persevered  until  he  had  even  the  smallest 
matters  attended  to.  On  Thursday,  the  loth  of 
August,  he  summoned  all  his  fast  failing 
strength  and  drove  to  town  to  pay  several  small 
bills  of  very  short  standing.  He  told  one  store 
keeper  that  the  doctor  feared  he  was  threatened 
with  fever  and  he  desired  to  attend  to  all  of  his 
affairs  while  he  was  able  to  do  so.  On  Friday 
morning  he  walked  to  his  parents'  home — a  short 
distance.  He  went  into  the  parlor  and,  seating 
himself  at  the  piano,  played  and  sang  the  song 
entitled  "When  the  roll  is  called  up  yonder 
I'll  be  there."  Shortly  after  he  returned  home 
and  endeavored  to  help  entertain  some  friends 
who  came  just  about  that  time,  but  his  strength 
failed  him  and  he  was  obliged  to  excuse  him- 
self and  lie  down.  He  began  to  suffer  so  in- 
tensely that  we  sent  for  the  physician.  Through 
the  remainder  of  the  day  and  night  his  symp- 
toms   became    more    alarming.     The   following- 


25 

morning  (Saturday)  he  was  not  able  to  leave* 
his  bed.  When  the  doctor  called  he  positively 
pronounced  his  sickness  typhoid  fever.  As 
soon  as  this  was  announced  for  a  certainty 
he  requested  that  he  be  taken  to  the  hospital. 
We  endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from  this  de- 
cision, but  he  still  insisted  on  it,  and  the 
doctor  approved  of  his  decision.  Accordingly 
a  carriage  was  secured  in  the  evening  and  he 
was  slowly  and  carefully  driven  to  the  hos- 
pital, a  distance  of  about  two  miles.  On  the 
way  he  spoke  of  how  wonderfully  God  had 
been  blessing  him  of  late  and  remarked  that 
he  was  glad  that  it  was  under  such  circum- 
stances that  he  was  taken  sick,  also  that  we  loved 
one  another  so  truly  and  that  there  was  nothing 
but  harmony  and  love  between  us.  Notwith- 
standing he  was  suffering  intensely  in  every 
part  of  his  body,  and  the  ride  was  long  and 
tedious  he  did  not  murmur  once  or  become  rest- 
less. When  we  finally  reached  the  hospital  they 
carried  him  to  a  large,  pleasant  room,  he  said  as 
they  placed  him  on  the  bed,  "01  am  glad  I  am 
here!     This  was  the  right  thing  to  do." 

We  may  never  fully  know  until  eternity,  why 
his  last  days  were  spent  in  the  Oil  City  Hospital, 
but  this  is  a  certainty,  that  Christ  was  upheld 
and  glorified,  yes  even  preached,  by  the  words, 
life   and   influence   of  his    servant's    last    days. 


26 

Providentially  I  was  enabled  to  be  with  him  the 
greater  part  of  the  time.  He  remained  rational 
until  about  Tuesday,  the  20th.  During  these 
days  he  communed  with  God.  His  mind  was  on 
heavenly  things.  The  physician  ordered  that  he 
be  kept  as  quiet  as  possible,  so  we  denied  our- 
selves the  privilege  of  talking  to  him  very 
much  that  he  might  have  a  better  chance  cf 
recovery.  He,  however,  would  frequently  speak 
of  the  Lord  and  praise  Him.  Sometimes  he 
would  ask,  "  Are  the  pilgrims  praying  for  me  ?" 
and  when  assured  that  they  were,  he  would  seem 
so  satisfied.  After  he  became  delirious,  he  was 
almost  constantly  praising  God  or  praying  or 
preaching.  He  often  insisted  that  the  nurse 
should  say,  "Praise  the  Lord/'  "Amen7'  or 
'' Hallelujah."  He  frequently  seemed  to  think 
that  he  was  in  some  church  service.  On  one 
occasion,  especially,  he  made  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  prayers  for  seekers,  whom  he  thought 
were  seeking  pardon  for  their  sins.  In  -this 
prayer  he  expressed  the  most  sublime  thoughts 
and  connected  them  so  perfectly,  that  the  nurse, 
a  Catholic  lady,  who  was  just  about  to  leave  the 
room  to  get  his  medicine,  stood  still  and  listened 
until  he  "finished.  It  was  indeed  a  very  touching- 
sight. 

It  was  not  until  Friday  evening  (the  23rd)  that 
any  dangerous  symptoms  manifested  themselves. 


27 

Op  to  this  time  liis  fever  had  been  gradually  de- 
creasing, and  his  heart's  action  had  been  improv- 
ing, seemingly.  The  delirium,  though  violent. 
was  not  the  most  alarming  form.  But  Friday 
evening  his  pulse  began  gradually  to  fail  and 
continued  to  do  so1  in  spite  of  all  that  could  be 
done.  During  that  night  he  praised  God  almost 
continuously.  By  morning  he  became  so  weak 
that  he  could  speak  only  in  whispers  and  by  the 
movement  of  his  lips.  He  became  rational  how- 
ever, and  knew  his  relatives  as  they  all  stood 
around  his  bedside. 

He  seemed  to  be  in  perfect  peace,  not  suffering. 
bu1  gradually  becoming  weaker  and  weaker. 
He  would  often  move  his  lips  to  say  "pray"  and 
as  we  prayed  and  sang,  the  angels  were  hasten- 
ing to  carry  the  precious  soul  away.  He  knew 
that  he  was  dying  and  when  asked  if  all  was 
well  to  press  the  hand,  he  strongly  pressed  his 
mother's  hand  several  times.  Twice  he  motioned 
to  his* wife  to  kiss  him  and  when  his  little  baby 
boy  was  brought  to  him  he  recognized  him  and 
took  his  little  hand  in  his  while  the  baby  lov- 
ingly laid  his  head  on  his  father's  noble  forehead. 
At  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  he  passed 
away. 

Like  a  faithful  servant,  willing  and  glad  to 
work  on  for  the  beloved  Master,  yet  ready  to  lay 
down  the  cross  and  take  np  the  crown  when  God 


28 

•in  His  wisdom,  says  "It  is  enough,,  come  up- 
higher."  this  faithful  servant — purified  and 
tried,  passed  over  the  bounds  of  time  into  the- 
realm  of  eternity.  Not  a  shadow  of  doubt  arises- 
to  mar  the  blessedness  of  the  thought  that  he  is 
now  among  the  redeemed  and  blood-washed. 
His  death  is  only  another  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  "  God's  ways  are  not  our  ways.  "  The  finite 
mind  could  scarcely  comprehend  how  he  could 
be  spared — so  young,  so  talented,  and  so  useful. 
He  was  truly  a  man  of  God.  Ever  valiant  for 
the  truth,  he  was  one  of  those  who  did  not  count 
his  life  dear  to  him,  that  he  might  advance- 
Christ's  cause.  He  was  ever  'bold,  uncomprom- 
ising, and  fearless  wherever  the  right  was  con- 
cerned, but  an  eager  advocate  for  peace  whenever 
it  could  be  had  on  righteous  lines. 

As  a  preacher,  he  shunned  not  to  declare  the 
whole  counsel  of  God.  During  the  last  few 
months  of  his  life  one  of  his  most  common 
themes  was  future  punishment.  Perhaps  be- 
cause so  few,  comparatively,  dared  to  preach  of 
its  awful  truths,  God  used  this  willing  servant  to 
proclaim  them. 

Another  theme  which  he  loved  was  holiness  of 
heart.  It  was  a  very  noticeable  feature  of  his- 
ministry  that  he  always  endeavored  to  lead  God's, 
children  into  the  blessing  of  holiness,  as  soon  as. 
possible  after  their    conversion.     Whenever   he 


20 

•conducted  an  altar  service,  seekers  for  holiness 
would  be  found  as  well  as  seekers  for  pardon. 

He  always  took  especial  pains  to  interest  him- 
self in  those  who  were  poor  and  despised,  and  he 
made  them  feel  that  he  was  their  friend.  The 
humblest  and  poorest  loved  .him.  But  in  no 
place  did  the  richness  and  strength,  the  loveli- 
ness and  purity  of  his  character,  manifest  itself 
"better  than  in  his  home.  He  had  a  very 
high  ideal  of  home  life  and  with  God's  grace 
lie  always  endeavored  to  realize  it.  Nothing  de- 
lighted him  more  than  to  have  his  home  a 
place  where  God's  children,  the  poor  and  the 
needy,  as  well  as  those  more  favored,  could  feel 
free  to  come. 

A"s  a  parent  he  was  remarkably  tender  and 
affectionate  and  yet  equally  firm.  By  the  time 
his  children  reached  the  age  of  three  months  he 
had  almost  perfect  control  of  them  and  without 
any  seeming  difficulty  in  gaining  it. 

As  a  husband  he  was  gentle,  affectionate  and 
true.  A  spiritual  guide  and  a  trusted  friend. 
Four  years  of  married  life  only  served  to  deepen 
.and  strengthen  the  already  deep  respect  and  ten- 
love  of 

f)t6  affectionate   OEtfe. 


"If  you  have  a  friend  worth  loving- 
Love  him  :  yes  !  and  let  him  know 

Yon  love  him, 
E'er  life's  evening  tinge  his  brow 

With  sunset  glow. 
Why  should  good  words  ne'er  be  saicft 
Of  a  friend  till  he  is  dead." 


II. 
fraternal  ^Tributes. 


Son,  good  and  faithful,  well  done, 

Lay  the  cross  and  armor  down: 
Swift  thy  race  of  life  hast  run, 

Quickly  thou  hast  earned  thy  crown: 
Enter  thou  the  realm  of  bliss, 

Calm  and  peaceful  be  thy  rest, 
While  friends  on  earth  thy  spirit  miss, 

Thou  canst  recline  on  Jesus'  breast. 

Thou  shalt  have  a  robe  of  white, 

A  victor's  palm  thy  hand  shalt  bear: 
And  in  that  world  with  spirits  bright, 

A  crown  of  righteousness  shalt  wear, 
Until  thy  brethren,  martyrs  here, 

Have  kept  the  faith,  and  fought  the  fight, 
Then  Christ  shall  brush  away  our  tears, 

Ourspirits  kindred  will  unite. 


II. 

FRATERNAL    TRIBUTES. 

REV.    D.    B.    TOBEY. 

'OR  the  past  six  years  it  has  been  my  privi- 
lege to  be  most  intimately  associated  with 
Aura  Claire  Showers,  and  I  am  ready  to  say 
now.  as  I  did  many  times  while  he  was  yel 
living,  he  was  intellectually  the  most  brilliant 
young  man  I  ever  met,  and  one  of  the  greatest 
preachers  I  ever  heard  speak. 

Some  may  think  this  too  strong,  but  I  do  not 
say  it  because  he  is  dead,  but  because,  to  my 
mind,  it  is  the  truth.  So  far  as  my  appreciation 
•of  and  love  for  him  was  concerned,  he  knew  what 
I  thought  of  him  for  I  often  told  him  and  he 
never  doubted  my  sincerity. 

There  were  those  among  us  who  would  criticize 
his  sermons,  because,  as  they  claimed,  the)7  were 
more  intellectual  than  spiritual,  and  also  because 
the  words  he  used  were  above  the  comprehension 
of  the  common  people. 

To  these  objections.  1  answer  thai  many  of 
these  critics  were  nol  spiritual  enough  themselves 
to  discern  the  fact  thai  the  Holy  Spirit   had  pos- 


34 

session  of  his  brain,  mind,  soul,  and  vocal  organs, 
and  his  preaching  was  supernatural,  and  yet  it 
is  a  fact  that  the  most  simple  minded  sat  at  his 
feet  to  learn  of  him,  and  he  nearly  always  made 
himself  understood  by  all  classes  of  persons. 
While  most  of  us  have  only  the  power  to  reach 
the  few,  he  could  reach  the  high  and  the  low, 
the  learned  and  the  unlearned.  No  man  could 
reach  down  lower  to  help  a  poor  ignorant  soul 
up  out  of  his  ignorance,  and  filth,  and  no  man 
could  write  his  name  higher  on  the  pinnacle  of 
fame,  as  orator,  and  minister  of  the  pure  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ.  I  was  often  moved  to  remark 
concerning  him,  ''He  stands  for  the  defense  of 
the  Gospel." 

He  was  able  too,  and  did,  walk  into  the  arena 
and  measure  arms  with,  and  defeat  on  their  own 
ground,  skeptics,  infidels,  Adventists,  No-sects, 
Spiritualists,  and  Christian  Scientists.  In  fact 
I  never  knew  of  him  meeting  defeat  in  any  thing- 
he  undertook. 

He  lived  a  life  of  absolute  abandonment  to  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  God,  and  he  would  undertake 
nothing  without  the  endorsement  of  God,  and 
thus  he  went  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer. 
He  seemed  to  step  boldly  out  on  the  very  ragged 
edge  of  finite  existence;  look  into  the  great  be- 
yond, and  bring  the  judgment,  hell  and  heaven 
into  view  in  such  a  way  that  his  audience  would 


35 

be  forced  to    confess    the    truth    whether   they 
yielded  and  obeyed  or  not. 

His  favorite  theme  was  the  eternal  punishment 
of  the  wicked,  and  its  relation  to  the  mercy  and 
jusl  Lee  of  Almighty  God. 

He  has  left  a  book  partly  written,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Hell,  that  I  think  his  bereaved  wife  ex- 
pects to  give  to  the  world,  in  connection  with  a 
few  of  his  sermons.  Let  us  pray  God  to  give  her 
health  and  strength  and  inspiration  to  finish,  as; 
l>est  she  can.  the  work  of  his  hands.  1  know  of 
no  one  so  capable  of  doing  it  as  herself.  Let  all 
who  have  the  power  in  any  way  hold  up  her 
hands. 

Brothei-  Showers  and  myself  were  together  in 
four  camp-meet  ings  and  two  holiness  conventions 
this  summer,  and  as  I  look  back  on  those  meet- 
ings and  his  work,  it  seems  to  me  I  can  see  writ- 
ten in  brigh.1  Letters,  "It  is  finished.  "  He  left 
no  duty  unperformed,  no  work  partly  done.  In 
his  own  district  camp-meetings,  from  beginning 
to  end,  he  seemed  to  move  in  divine  order,  and 
everything  was  done  so  perfectly  ami  so  promptly 
that  it  attracted  the  attention  of  marly  all 
present.  And  ( ).  what  an  influence  has  gone- 
abroad  from  that  meeting!  Eternity  alone  will 
disclose  it.  I  have  already  come  in  touch  with 
so  much  good  that  was  done  there.  He  preached, 
exhorted,    sung,    prayed,    and    was    wonderfully 


30 

blest,  and  inspired  of  God.  I  especially  noticed 
his  untiring  labor  around  the  altar.  The  last 
night,  about  12  o'clock,  after  we  had  marched 
around  the  ground,  and  had  shaken  hands,  and 
dismissed  the  congregation,  many  lingered,  and 
the  saints  gathered  in  the  stand  and  sang  a  num- 
ber of  hymns.  Tlie  last  hymn  sung  on  that 
memorable  night  was  "  When  the  Roll  is  called 
up  yonder  I'll  be  there.  "  After  singing  it.  and 
singing  the  chorus  over  many  times,  while  the 
saints  were  weeping,  laughing  and  shouting,  he 
stepped  out  to  the  front  and  asked  for  the  atten- 
tion of  all.  Instantly  every  voice  was  hushed. 
as  by  divine  touch,  and  in  clear,  ringing  accents 
he  said.  "In  a  little  while  I'll  be  there  (pointing 
up),  and  when  you  get  there  you  will  hear  me 
sing  that  chorus,  and  I  will  then  sing  soprano, 
alto,  bass,  and  tenor  all  at  onetime."  "  Now," 
said  he.  "  while  you  sing  it  again,  try  to  imagine 
how  it  will  sound  when  we  all  get  there,  and 
each  sing  all  the  parts  at  one  time.  "  And  while 
we  raised  our  voices  and  sang  it  again,  God  gave 
us  our  parting  benediction.  The  cloud  of  fire 
seemed  to  envelop  us  for  a  time,  as  it  did  the  dis- 
ciples on  the  mount  of  transfiguration,  and  then 
we  found  ourselves  again  in  the  realities  of  this 
sin-bnrdened  world. 

I  look  at  his  district.  I  see  his  dear   brethren 
and  sisters  in  the  ministry  and  work  of  God.  as 


with  aching  heart,  and  throbbing  brow,  they  set' 
their  teeth,  and  choke  back  the  coming  tear,  and 
press  on  in  the  battle,  doing  their  utmost  to  fill 
the  gap  and  finish  their  work,  and  die  at  their 
post,  as  he  did. 

I  look  at  his  yonng  wife  who,  in  the  hottest 
fire  and  at  the  heaviest  blows,  still  whispers,  "  As 
God  will,  and  in  the  hottest  fire  holds  still."  1 
look  at  his  orphan  boy  (over  whom  he  had  the 
most  perfect  control),  left  in  this  wicked  world. 
I  look  at  his  bereaved  parents,  to  whom,  in  their 
old  age.  he  was  such  a  comfort.  I  look  at  the 
relatives,  and  those  that  depended  upon  him  for 
counsel  and  advice  My  soul  cries  out,  O,  God, 
why  is  this?  How  the  work  of  God  needed  him, 
how  his  district  needed  him,  how  his  wife,  boy 
and  parents  needed  him,  and  last,  but  not  least, 
how  1  needed  him.  He  was  my  bosom  friend.  I 
withheld  nothing'from  him.  I  can  see  but  one  rea- 
son, and  even  from  my  finite  point  of  view,  I  can 
see  why.  and  I  believe  I  express  the  sentiment  of 
the  Church,  his  wife,  parents  and  all,  when  I  say 
that,  through  my  blinding  tears,  and  while  my 
heart-strings  break,  Lord,  Thou  hast  done  it,  and 
our  sonls  say  amen,  and  we  would  not  wish  it 
different. 

He  has  slain  more  in  his  death,  than  in  his  life. 
The  months  of  his  highest  critics  are  closed. 
Smiie  who  would  discourage  in  his  life  are  loud- 


38 

est  in  his  praise,  and  to  those  who  loved  and  ap- 
preciated him,  and  sat  at  his  feet,  earth  has  less 
attraction,  and  heaven  is  dearer.  All  who  knew 
him  feel  that  a  pure  spirit  who  blessed  the  world 
with  his  presence  has  gone  to  that  bright  clime 
where  holy  characters  blend,  and  sorrow  is  not 
known,  in  a  word,  the  Christ-life  in  him  has  been 
lifted  up,  and  all  who  knew  him  are  drawn. 

Brethren,  let  us  be  better  brothers,  sisters, 
fathers,  mothers,  and  neighbors,  and  let  us  be 
abandoned  to  the  divine  will,  that  we  may  follow 
him  as  he  followed  Christ,  and  be  forever  with 
his  Lord,  and  our  Lord. 

The  last  time  I  shook  hands  with  him  was  on 
the  Greenville  camp-ground  the  morning  after 
the  meeting  closed  (August  8th),  he  walked 
rapidly  across  the  ground  and  as  he  extended  his 
hand  he  said,  "  My  heart  is  just  bounding  with 
love  for  you,  as  I  shake  hands  and  say  good 
bye.  " 

It  was  the  last  good  bye,  the  last  handshake, 
the  last  look  into  those  keen,  pure  eyes  here,  but 
not  the  last  handclasp,  for  we  shall  meet  and  clasp 
hands  and  see  as  we  are  seen  and  know  as  we 
are  known. 

I  wait,  dear  Lord,  for  further  explanation  until 
then. 

Good  bye  till  then,  Aura. 


39 


REV.  J.  S.  McGEARY. 


My  acquaintance  with  A.  C.  Showers  began  at  a 
■cainp-meeting  held  at  Titusville,  Pa.,  in  August, 
L887.     He  had  then  been  converted  but   a   short 
time.     The  impression  of  Lis   countenance    and 
individuality   then    made    upon    me   has   never 
been  effaced.     The   following  summer,  while   I 
was  in  charge   of   the  New   Castle    district,   he 
came     before     me    for    examination     for     local 
preacher's    license.     The    clearness  with    which 
he   answered    all    questions    put  to  him  at  that 
time  and  the  breadth  of  mind  shown  impressed 
me    that   his    was    no    ordinary   mind.     It    was 
a  source  of  sincere    regret    to   me   when,    with 
his    father's     family,     he     removed    to  another 
part  of  the   conference  and  we   were  no  longer 
closely  associated  in  the  work.     Yet  by  frequent 
association    I   learned   to   appreciate    the   many 
excellent  qualities  of   which   he   was   possessed. 
Upon  his  remarking  to  me  at  the   Apollo,    Pa., 
camp-meeting  in  1889,  which  he  attended  by  my 
invitation,  that  he  did  not  know  who   was   his 
spiritual  father.  I  replied.  "I   will  adopt  you," 
he   frequently  afterwards  addressed  myself  and 
wife  as  "  father"  and  "  mother.  "     As  a  brother 
and    friend   he   held   a    very   high    place  in  my 
heart. 


40 

Among  the  things  in  his  character  and  individ- 
uality which  impressed  me  were  the  following: 
He  was  a  marked  example  of  the  power  of 
grace.  Young,  talented,  educated,  with  abun- 
dant opportunity  to  taste  the  sweets  of  worldly 
pleasure,  and  with  all  the  capacity  for  the  keen 
enjoyment  of  the  world  which  such  an  endow- 
ment gave  him,  he  was  from  the  first  thoroughly 
saved  from  it  all.  In  this  he  gloried.  His  testi- 
mony at  the  Sharon,  Pa.,  camp-meeting,  in  1889, 
as  he  stood  upon  the  altar  and  cried,  "  Look  at 
me  !  Look  at  me !  I  am  a  young  man  and 
saved!  "  was  not  indicative  of  self,  but  of  glory- 
ing that  grace  had  redeemed  him  out  from 
among  the  mass  of  young  men  who  were  run- 
ning madly  after  the  world  and  sin. 

His  disposition  was  bright,  sunny  and  cheerful. 
Although  far  removed  from  lightness  and  fool- 
ishness, he  was  just  as  far  removed  from  austerity 
on  the  other  hand.  He  lived  in  the  sunlight  of 
heaven,  and  scattered  sunshine  wherever  he  went. 

He  was  absolutely  devoted  to  God  and  I  is 
work,  pushing  forward,  especially  during  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  with  praise  to  God  in  his 
heart  and  on  his  lips  when  his  frail  body  was 
trembling  with  fatigue,  and  going  forward  with 
his  public  ministrations  when  he  felt  that  he  was 
only  able  to  preach  as  he  was  directly  strength- 
ened  from  above,  in  body  as  well  as  in  spirit. 


41 

Gladly  be  went  until  the  body,  always  too  frail 
for  the  spirit  within,  succumbed  to  weakness 
and  the  spirit  enraptured  escaped  to  the  God  he 
loved  and  served. 

His  intellect  was  brilliant,  and  he  was  a  clear, 
forcible  speaker  and  writer.  He  was  an  uncom- 
promising and  fearless  preacher  and  defender  of 
tlic  whole  truth.  His  scathing  denunciations 
of  sin  and  worldliness  were  sufficient  to  encour- 
age lovers  of  truth  to  believe  that  the  spirit  of 
the  old  prophets  was  not  extinct,  and  to  make 
sinners,  hyprocrites  and  half-hearted  professors, 
of  religion  tremble.  As  a  preacher  he  was  al- 
ways instructive  and  spiritual,  and  often  eloquent. 
He  dealt  faithfully  with  souls.  No  one  under 
his  labors  was  ever  daubed  with  untempered 
mortal- or  healed  slightly.  By  the  aid  of  the 
Spirit  he  laid  bare  the  sin  of  the  heart  and  in- 
sisted on  genuine  repentance  and  seeking  the 
Lord. 

His  sudden  and.  to  us,  untimely  death  was  one 
of  those  providences  which  we  shall  only  under- 
stand "  when  the  mists  have  rolled  away."  It 
seemed  we  could  not  spare  him,  but  Father 
knoweth  best  and  He  took  him.  Fen*  us  there 
still  remain  the  thorns  and  ruggedness  of  the  way 
for  him  the  glory  of  the  Paradise  of  God;  for  us 
yet  a  little  longer  of  cross  bearing,  self-denial 
and  reproach  In  cause  of  the  cross  of  Christ,    for 


42 

liim  the  rest  among  the  "  spirits  of  just  men  made 
perfect:  "  for  ns  a  few  more  days,  or  years  per- 
haps, of  warfare,  for  him  the  eternal  victory  and 
the  Master's  "  Well  done.  "  Farewell,  brother, 
friend,  beloved  ! 

'*  In  that  bright  and  cloudless  morning, 

When  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise, 

And  the  glory  of  His  resurrection  share," 

we  expect  again  to  meet  thee  and  greet  the  where 
"  sickness,  sorrow,  pain  and  death  are  felt  and 
feared  no  more.  "  and  with  thee  share  His  glory 
and  sing  His  praise  who  hath  "loved  ns  and 
washed  ns  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood.  " 
**  Let  us,  "  who  are  left 

"Labor  for  the  Master  from  the  dawn  till  setting  sun, 

Let  us  talk  of  all  His  wondrous  love  and  care, 

Then  when  all  of  life  is  over,  and  our  work  on  earth  is 

done, 
And  the  roll  is  called  up  yonder  I'll  be  there." 

Till  then,  brother,  "  Good  Night.  " 


REV.  J.  BARNHART. 
Rev.  A.  C.  Showers  was  a  man  of  God  such  as 
we  seldom  meet.  His  presence  would  impress 
you  with  a  seriousness  without  sadness,  a  light- 
ness which  was  not  levity.  You  could  never 
meet  him  and  converse  with  him  without  feeling 
that  you  had  been  benefited  and  that  you  went 
•out  from  his  presence  a  better   man  than  when 


4:; 

you  met  him.  He  had  a  well  developed  physical 
form  yet  his  body  was  weak  and  always  had  a 
delicate  appearance,  but  he  had  a  giant's  brain 
and  was  always  ready  to  enter  the  battle  for  God 
without  shrinking,  and  would  inspire  any  man 
to  do  so. 

He  would  impress  you  with  the  thought  that 
he  expected  to  pass  through  this  world  but  once; 
and  any  good  thing  that  In1  could  do,  or  any  kind- 
ness that  lif  could  show  to  a  human  being,  or  a 
word  that  he  could  speak  for  Jesus,  he  seemed 
to  say,  let  me  do  it  now;  let  me  not  neglect  nor 
defer  it.  for  I  shall  not  pass  this  way  again.  He 
was  more  than  an  ordinary  preacher.  He  was 
surely  raised  up  by  God  himself  for  the  defense 
of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  had  a  perfect 
flow  of  language  and  never  lacked  for  the  choicest 
words;  his  arguments  were  strong  and  convinc- 
ing and  his  conclusions  were  logical  and  unan- 
swerable, he  depended  upon  God  to  carry  his 
words  to  his  hearers.  As  a  man  he  knew  his 
place  and  kept  it.  He  never  sought  for  position 
and  all  that  was  given  to  him  by  the  church  of 
his  choice,  came  unsought  for  by  himself.  But 
his  gifts  and  talents  were  recognized  by  his  breth- 
ren who  freely  gave  him  the  place  he  tilled  in 
their  ranks.  As  we  met  him  from  time  to  time 
we  could  see  how  the  Lord  was  using  him.  We 
•could  not  help  but  say.  "  ()  for  a  body  to  go  with 


u 

his  soul."  But  lie  seemed  to  live  where  he  could 
claim  the  promise.  "As  thy  day  is  so  shall  thy 
strength  be,"  and  would  impress  you  with  the 
following  words  written  by  Francis  R.  HavergaL 

In  thee  I  trust,  on  thee  I  rest, 
O  Saviour  dear,  Redeemer  blest ! 
No  earthly  friend,  no  brother  knows 
My  weariness,  my  wants,  my  woes. 
On  thee  I  call,  who  knowest  all. 
O  Saviour  dear,  Redeemer  blest, 
In  thee  I  trust,  on  thee  I  rest. 
We  hoped  with  his  simple  trust  in  Jesus  that  he- 
would  stay  with  us  longer,  but  over  the  wire  at 
lightning's  speed  the  message  came  to  us,  "  pulse 
120,  temperature  104."     With  the  advantages  of 
this  19th  century  we  hurried  to  the  spot  where 
sin  had  laid  him;  not  outward  sin   for   that   was 
all  blotted  out,  not  inborn  sin  for  that  had  been 
cleansed,  but  the  consequences  of   sin,    and   we 
were  not  permitted  to  see  his  blessed  face.     Duty 
called  us  away  and  again  the  news  over  the  wire 
at  lightning's  speed  and  before  we  could  see  him 
or  be  in  his  presence  where   we   so   much   loved 
to  be, — 

He  plumed  his  glad  wings  and  soared  upward, 

The  angels  attending  his  flight, 
He  wTas  met  at  the  gates  by  his  loved  ones, 
And  the  Saviour  who  is  the  true  light. 

We  cannot  understand  with  our  finite   minds 
why  he  left  us,  but  perhaps 


The  angek  were  lonely  without  him, 
So  they  wooed  him  and  won  him  away, 

The  gates  of  the  city  were  open 
The  city  of  unending  day. 

He  in  life  met  all  his  opposers  with  strength 
and  character,  with  a  spirit  of  kindness  and  of 
•Christ,  but  no  doubt  often. — 

While  here  in  the  Valley  of  Shadows, 

He  often  was  longing  for  rest, 
For  the  companionship  of  the  Holy, 

And  the  joys  only  known  to  the  blest. 

But  we  can  all  rest  in  this  thought  and  say, — 

"We  know  that  an  entrance  was  welcome, 
That  a  mansion  for  him  was  prepared. 

That  a  robe  and  a  palm  had  been  granted, 
And  a  crown  which  the  glorified  wear. 

"And  though  our  hearts  were  sad  at  the  parting, 
As  we're  passing  through  sorrow's  dark  night, 

Yet  we  all  again  hope  to  meet  him, 
In  the  bright  resurrection  light." 

He  was  a  man  of  tenderness  and  compassion 
.and  naturally  he  would  never  have  written  the 
hook  on  Eternal  Punishment  but  that  his  untiring 
zeal  and  his  intense  yearning  over  the  lost  of 
•  •arih  brought  before  his  spiritual  eyes  the  awful 
fate  of  lost  souls,  and  Jesus  seemed  to  take  him 
on  1  he  Isle  of  Patmos  and  draw  aside  the  curtains 
of  Eternity  and  inspired  his  soul  to  preach  and  to 


46 

write  and  warn  the  lost  of  earth  as  he  did.  He 
was  my  own  true  friend  and  brother. 

He  was  not  an  extremist,  nor  was  he  a  hobbyist. 
as  some  might  suppose  in  reading  his  book.  Any 
subject  be  took  np  he  treated  with  the  same 
strong  arguments  and  logical  conclusions  as  the 
subject  before  us.  He  would  preach  about 
heaven  and  portray  its  glories  and  grandeur,  un- 
til you  would  almost  imagine  yourself  among  the 
angelic  host  and  with  the  redeemed  who  have 
washed  their  robes  and  made  them  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.  He  would  take  the  negative 
side  of  a  question  or  subject  and  produce  one  of 
the  strongest  and  most  convincing  arguments. 
For  illustration,  he  would  take  the  text.  "We 
know  that  this  man  is  a  sinner  "  and  preach  the 
strongest  and  most   powerful   holiness   sermons. 

We  had  the  privilege  of  attending  his  camp- 
meeting,  held  at  Greenville,  Pa.,  the  first  and 
last  camp-meeting  of  which  he  ever  had  the  en- 
tire management.  There  under  much  physical 
suffering  and  many  discouraging  things  to  meet, 
he  proved  himself  to  be  a  general,  a  leader,  a 
commander,  who  could  stand  in  the  van  and  in 
every  meeting  lead  a  band  of  pilgrims  to  God  and 
victory. 

The  meeting  was  pronounced  a  grand  success 
by  the  oldest  and  most  experienced  who  were  in 
attendance. 


4; 

I  was  with  him  in  the  Butler  holiness  conven- 
tion. During  one  of  the  meetings  of  this  conven- 
tion where  the  two  extremes  of  holiness  teaching 
were  represented,  the  *'  Popular  "  or  mere  theory, 
destitute  of  the  Spirit  and  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  ■'death  route"  to  carnality  by 
physical  suffering,  our  brother  came  to  me  with 
the  following  outline,  showing  his  (dear  percep- 
tion of  the  subject.  "A  candidate  for  holiness 
must. 

1st.     Be  (dearly  converted. 

2nd.     Have  no  condemnation. 

3rd.     Have  a  definite  idea  of  carnality. 

4th.  A  consecration  of  his  redeemed  powers  to 
God. 

5th.     Faith  or  a  reception  of  sanctifying  grace 

6th.     Cleanness  and  power." 

His  heart  and  soul  and  life  were  in  God's  work. 
He  faithfully  advocated  the  issues  of  our  church, 
and  was  a  living  witness  of  them.  The  work  of 
God  was  fulfilled  in  him.  "He  maketh  his  min- 
isters a  flame  of  fire."  May  God  let  his  mantle 
fall  on  some  one  who  will  take  his  place  and  fill 
up  the  ranks. 

PRINCIPAL  B.  H.  ROBERTS. 

In  my  experience  of  twenty  years  in  the  school 
room  it  lias  been  my  good  fortune  to  have  many 
young   people   of  deep  piety  under  my   charge. 


48 

IB ut  in  all  the  number  there  was  none  who  for 
brightness  of  intellect,  integrity  to  principle,  de- 
motion to  the  work  of  God,  excelled  our  Brother 
Aura  Showers.  He  came  to  Chili  in  the  bloom 
of  youth,  at  the  age  when  the  world  is  most  at- 
tractive, when  the  natural  gaiety  of  youth  im- 
pels many  to  frivolity.  He  was  of  a  highly 
-social  disposition,  but  so  thoroughly  was  he  given 
to  God  that  he  was  saved  alike  from  folly  and 
frivolity  and  from  moroseness.  He  was  pleas- 
ant, cheerful,  companionable,  yet  in  all  he  was 
devout. 

He  set  his  mark  high.  It  was  his  purpose  to 
he  a  minister.  The  discussion,  if  he  ever  had 
one,  on  that  point  was  ended.  Thenceforth  for 
him  was  no  retreat.  He  then  set  himself  to  be- 
come a  good  preacher.  To  that  end  he  studied 
and  studied  hard.  Greek  he  mastered 
thoroughly  for  that  would  help  in  his  ministerial 
work.  He  set  himself  to  do  a  man's  work  and 
■counted  that  he  should  one  day  undertake  great 
responsibilities  for  God.  But  he  did  not  as  so 
many  do,  leave  the  day  of  his  usefulness  for  God, 
to  dawn  in  the  future,  but  in  school  he  worked 
and  lived  for  God.  So  while  intent  on  his 
studies,  he  was  at  every  meeting  prepared  to 
help.  Do  you  wonder  that  he  had  an  influence 
for  good?  He  proved  that  it  was  not  necessary 
to  let  yonng  associates  and  the  pressure  of  school 


49 

life  draw  one  from  God  by  drawing  others  to 
•God.  Instead  of  letting  Satan  work  hurt  to  him, 
lie  wrought  great  hurt  to  the    satanic   kingdom. 

At  Chili  he  was  faithful,  at  Spring  Arbor  he 
was  faithful.  Says  one  who  knew  him  well,  of 
this  period  of  his  life: 

"  While  in  the  above  institution,  his  life  was  a 
blessing  to  it.  Being  not  only  a  faithful  and  in- 
dustrious student,  but  also  an  active  worker  in 
the  cause  of  Christ,  he  won  the  respect  and  love 
not  only  of  his  fellow  students  but  also  of  the 
faculty.  He  frequently  preached  in  Spring  Ar- 
bor, and  during  the  latter  part  of  the  year  he 
took  an  appointment  at  Battle  Creek,  Mich.  He 
preached  faithfully  in  this  place  every  Sabbath 
during  the  remainder  of  the  year  besides  doing 
extra  work  in  his  studies — taking  two  years  work 
in  the  study  of  Greek  in  one  year.  Battle  Creek 
being  the  centre  of  the  people  known  as  Adven- 
tists,  he  frequently  came  in  contact  with  them 
and  their  fallacious  doctrine.  As  he  learned  how 
wide  spread  it  was  becoming,  he  felt  led  to  write 
his  little  book  entitled  'Sabbatarianism,'  in 
which  he  strongly  and  successfully  refutes  their 
doctrine.  Concerning  this  book  Rev.  R.  W. 
Hawkins  wrote  under  date  of  Feb.  36,  L891." 

■"  The  author  has  succeeded  in  producing  a  very 
valuable,  and  interesting  book:  Valuable  because 
of  t]  i .e  amount  of  im  portant  information  condensed 


50 

within  so  small  a  compass:  Interesting  because 
of  the  vigorous  manner  in  which  the  subject  is 
treated.  Many  persons  not  directly  interested  in 
the  discussion  will  read  it  because  of  its  entertain- 
ing style. 

"  'As  a  literary  work  the  book  is  a  surprising 
effort  for  so  young  an  author.  It  will  take  its 
place  among  the  best,  and  gives  great  promise 
for  future  productions.  It  will  be  highly  prized 
as  a  treasury  of  facts  for  ready  reference,  and  will 
doubtless  accomplish  great  good  by  supplying 
sincere  seekers  of  truth  with  a  satisfactory  de- 
fense of  the  Christian  Sabbath/  " 

Others  have  written  of  his  ministry,  but  I  can- 
not pass  without  paying  tribute  to  his  marvelous 
clearness  as  a  preacher.  The  sermon  preached  at 
North  Chili  the  anniversary  week  of  1895  was 
masterful  in  argument,  diction  and  the  power  of 
the  Spirit. 

What  a  shock  it  was  to  read,  two  months  later 
in  a  strange  land,  the  words,  "Brother  Showers 
has  gone."  The  tie  strengthens  that  binds  us  to 
the  other  shore. 


REV.    WALTER    A.    SELLEW. 

Aura  Claire  Showers  would  attract  attention 
in  any  gathering.  Surface  indications  as  to 
character  are  usually  very  unreliable   except  to 


51 

the  practiced  observer,  but  Brother  Showers  al- 
most carried  his  character  in  his  face.  His 
mind  and  soul  seemed  to  illuminate  his  very 
features.  An  educated  Christian  lady  residing 
ing  in  Oil  City,  Pa.,  remarked  at  the  funeral. 
thai  the  first  time  she  met  Brother  Showers  on 
the  street  she  found  herself  so  impressed  with 
his  face  that  she  actually  turned  to  get  a  second 
look  at  him  after  passing.  She  said  that  his  face 
impressed  her  as  almost  a  revelation,  remarkably 
expressing  a  character  seemingly  composed  of 
about  equal  parts  of  intellectuality  and  spiritu- 
ality. 

Such  indeed   was  the  rare  combination  in  his 
character.     He  was  intensely  intellectual.    Every- 
thing was  made  to  pass  through  his  mind.     At 
times,  this  phase  of  his  character  seemed  even  to* 
his  friends  to  he   almost    a    fault.     He  accepted 
nothing  before  it  had  passed  intellectual  inspec- 
tion.    Things    seemingly  so  insignificant,  or  so 
well  established   by  long   continued   acceptance 
that  they  passed   most   people    without    exciting; 
thought,    were    halted  by    the  challenge  of  his 
mind  for  the  countersign.     They  must    pass   his 
thoughtful  inspection.     With  considerate  regard 
for  older  men,  admittedly  his  superiors  in    intel- 
ligence,  he  insisted  upon  doing  his  own  thinking- 
ami  reasoning. 

This  intense  intellectuality  was   modified    by, 


52 

and  ever  blended  with,  a  strong  spirituality.  In- 
tellectual strength  of  itself  is  admirable,  but 
never  lovable.  It  inclines  to  egotism,  and  criti- 
cism. Brother  Showers'  spirituality  surpassed 
all  other  qualities  of  his  nature,  and  was  the  final 
arbiter  in  all  matters.  While  many  others  with 
his  intellectual  abilities  would  have  been  ad- 
mired and  feared,  he  was  respected  for  his  ability 
and  loved  for  his  spirituality. 


AURA  CLAIRE   SHOWERS. 


III. 

THE  DOCTRINE 

OF 

future  punishment, 

FROM    THE    UNPUBLISHED    MANUSCRIPT 
OF 

REV.  AURA  CLAIRE  SHOWERS. 


PART  I. 

DOCTRINE  OF  FUTURE  PUNISHMENT  IN 
RELATION  TO  GOVERNMENT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

RETRIBUTIVE     JUSTICE     NECESSARY     TO    GOVERN- 
MENT. 


Jf|T  HE  fact  of  hell  cannot  consistently  be  de- 
^■f  nied  with  any  concise  ideas  of  government. 

Government  implies  the  governor  and  the  gov- 
erned. These  complements  could  not  hold  their 
relative  positions,  except  by  the  authority  of  law. 
Law  is  effective  when  its  disregard  involves, 
punishment.  It  must  be  efficient  enough  to  be 
able  to  administer  its  retributions,  when  in  its 
judgment,  law  has  been  violated.  Without  this 
inherent  power,  it  is  no  protection  nor  encour- 
agement to  the  lawful. 

It  cannot  be  truthfully  asserted  that  punish- 
ment is  usually  for  reformation;  for  punishment, 
in  many  cases,  is  simply  the  desert  of  broken  law. 
The  penalty  is  inflicted  for  the  sake  of  the  law, 
rather  than  for  the  sake  of  the  lawless.  Twesten 
(Dogmatik  Th.  11.)  says  to  this  point  : — "Pun- 
ishment is  not  a  proper  means  of  reformation, 
for  true  reformation  can  issue  only  from  free 
self-determination.  It  is  voluntary  in  its  nature. 
But  a  self-determination  that  is  brought  about 


58 

"by  the  fear  of  pain  would  not  be  moral  and  of  the 
nature  of  virtue.  Furthermore,  if  true  reforma- 
tion could  be  produced  by  punishment,  why 
should  not  the  legal  and  punitive  method  of  the 
Old  Testament  have  been  the  only  one  ?  The 
•old  economy  was  full  of  threatenings  and  penal- 
ties, and  fearful  examples  of  their  actual  execu- 
tion. Why  did  God  send  his  Son,  and  make  a 
new  covenant  and  economy  of  mercy?  Of  what 
rise  is  redemption,  or  the  remission  of  punish- 
ment, if  punishment  is,  in  itself,  healing  and 
remedial  ?  The  Scriptures  never  represent  pun- 
ishment as  reformatory.  The  proper  punish- 
ment of  sin  is  death.  (Rom.  6:23).  As  temporal 
death,  which  is  the  extreme  penalty  in  human 
legislation,  is  not  intended  to  reform  the  crimi- 
nal, and  reinstate  him  in  human  society,  but  for- 
ever cuts  him  off  from  it,  so  eternal  death,  in  the 
Biblical  representation,  is  not  intended  to  be  a 
means  of  educating  the  sinner,  and  fitting  him 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  forever  banishes 
•and  excludes  him  from  it." 

This  thought  is  too  obvious  to  demand  elabor- 
ation. To  allow  heterogeneous  peoples  to  under- 
stand that  "justice  is  tempered  with  mercy"  is 
to  throw  open  the  flood-gates  of  crime. 

It  is  the  knowledge  that  law  is  inexorable  that 
makes  it  effective.  The  government  that  prac- 
tices leniency  in  the  administration  of  its   laws, 


51) 

•so  as  to  become  in  repute  for  it,  also  becomes 
dangerous  and  presages  its  utter  subversion  and 
ruin.  And  just  in  proportion  as  individuals  or 
nations  disbelieve  in  future  retribution,  in  the 
.same  proportion  do  crime  and  lawlessness  prevail. 
Dr.  Shedd  (Endless  Punishment)  says  :— "The 
French  people,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century, 
were  a  very  demoralized  and  vicious  generation, 
and  there  was  a  very  general  disbelief  and  denial 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Divine  existence,  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  the  freedom  of  the  will, 
and  future  retribution.  And  upon  a  small  scale, 
the  same  fact  is  continually  repeating  itself.  And 
every  little  circle  of  businessmen,  who  are  known 
to  deny  future  rewards  and  punishments,  are 
•shunned  by  those  who  desire  safe  investments. 
The  recent  uncommon  energy  of  opposition  to 
endless  punishment,  which  started  about  ten 
years  ago  in  this  country,  (1875)  synchronized 
with  great  defalcations  and  breaches  of  trust,  un- 
common corruption  in  mercantile  and  political 
life,  and  great  distrust  between  man  and  man. 
No  theological  tenet  is  more  important  than 
eternal  retribution  to  those  modern  nations 
which,  like  England,  Germany  and  the  United 
States,  are  growing  rapidly  in  riches,  luxury,  and 
earthly  power." 

The  human  family  constitutes  one  vast  govern- 
ment,    This   government   has   its    laws.     These 


60 

laws  are  imperative.  No  one,  as  yet,  has  ever  ob- 
jected to  the  law  of  gravity,  yet  it  as  surely  works 
death  as  life. 

We  see,  all  around  us,  the  most  pitiable  and 
indubitable  proof  that  law  is,  to  our  feelings, 
merciless. 

Many  a  man,  by  a  momentary  disregard  of 
some  law  known  or  unknown,  has  set  in  motion 
a  chain  of  circumstances  which  has  utterly  ruined 
him  !  In  fact  the  force  of  law,  in  many  in- 
stances, only  becomes  apparent  at  the  expense  of 
the  happiness  or  life  of  some  unfortunate.  How 
expensive  are  some  of  the  lessons  we  have  learned 
concerning  the  law  of  steam  or  electricity  ! 

Look  at  the  maniac,  the  cripple,  the  idiot,  the 
libertine  !  Look  at  the  asylum,  the  hospital,  the 
poor  house,  the  prison  !  Do  these  teach  us  the 
mercy  and  suavity,  or  the  rigor  of  law? 

This  view  of  affairs  may  produce  pessimists, 
but  optimism,  which  is  born  of  error  or  ignorance 
is  fatal. 

However  unhandsome  the  thought  may  seem, 
it  is,  nevertheless,  true  that  law  is  more  discer- 
nible and  government  more  authoritative  through 
the  medium  of  their  retributions  than  by  their 
benefits. 

There  comes  associated  with  the  very  principle 
of  government  the  law  of  retribution.  Its  sever- 
ity, nature  and  duration  are  not  pertinent  here 


Ill 

or  now.  It  remains  for  relations  and  circum- 
stances to  give  character  to  the  answers  that  may 
he  necessary. 

But  to  be  more  particular,  and  yet  quite  as 
consistent,  let  us  glance  at  several  departments 
of  government  in  the  affairs  of  life,  and  dis- 
cern their  teachings. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ILLUSTRATED    IN    THE   FAMILY. 

ND  first:  consider  domestic  government  or 
<f£f^  the  f miction  of  law  in  the  home  circle. 
Where  a  moral  question  is  not  involved,  the  au- 
thority of  a  father  or  mother  is  considered  abso- 
lute. This  authority  is  and  must  be  maintained 
by  the  most  effective  and  rigorous  discipline. 
The  power  and  function  to  coerce  an  obdurate 
child  are  the  prerogatives  of  the  parents.  '  "Train 
up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go:  and  when  he 
is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from  it/'  (Prov.  22:0)  is 
a  wholesome  admonition,  though  lamentably  dis- 
regarded. 

"He  that  spareth  his  rod  hateth  his  son,  but  he 
that  loveth  him  chasteneth  him  betimes, 
(Prov.  13:24)  seems  corroborative  of  necessity  for 
stern  methods  in  the  correction  of  children. 
''Furthermore  we  have  had  fathers  of  our  flesh 
which  corrected  us.  and  we  gave  them  reverence," 
is  well  calculated  to  banish  the  conception  of  ig- 
nobility  and  harshness  from  paternal  reproof, 
and  is  also  a  stinging  blow  against  the  sentimen- 


63 


talism  that  will  refuse  to  exercise  this  office  of 
fatherhood  in  wisdom. 

We  observe  that  the  power  that  resides  in  the- 
parents  is  principally  for  the  safety  and  salvation 
of  the  offspring.  This,  however,  cannot  invali- 
date its  force  as  pointing  to  a  fundamental  prin- 
ciple, viz:  that  certain  relations,  even  in  this  life, 
insist  that  punishment  is  the  just  desert  of  dis- 
obedience. 

That  parents,  in  the  greater  number  of  cases, 
do  not  cut  off  their  children  from  all  hope  of 
reconciliation  is  not  expressive  of  any  governing- 
principle  in  the  relations  of  parent  and  child, 
except  simple  limitation  in  theline  of  the  parent's 
I  towers. 

The  relations  of  the  earthly  parent  to  the  child 
are  too  nearly  like  those  relations  of  man  to  man,. 
t<>  admit  of  a  final  and  endless  breach  in  every 
irremediable  case.  Were  the  one  divine  because 
he  is  father,  and  the  other  human  because  he  is 
son,  then  we  might  expect  and  demand  a. 
more  rigorous  and  absolute  power  on  the  part  of 
the  parent. 

One  thing,  however,  is  worthy  our  attention, 
viz:  parents  exercise  to  the  full  extent  their 
native  and  delegated  power,  and  frequently  this 
power  leads  to  the  entire  divorcement  of  the  child 
from  ilc  parent. 

Furthermore,  it  m  iy  ba  noted,  that  the  •future: 


64 

of  a  child  is  entirely  in  the  decision  of  the  parents. 
One  might  think  this  arbitrary ;  it  is  however  an 
.arbitrary  fact.  The  immeasurable  distances  be- 
tween the  destinies  of  two  children,  even  of  the 
.same  parentage,  is  remarkable.  And  there 
seems  to  be  nothing  but  an  arbitrary  reason  for  the 
fact  that  one  man's  children  are  successful  and 
respectable  in  the  world  and  another  man's  child- 
ren are  far  from  it. 

The  thought  that  is  frequently  advanced  that 
an  earthly  father  would  not  do  thus  and  so,  and 
-especially,  would  not  consign  his  children  to  end- 
less torment,  is  not  pertinent  nor  relevant,  for  it 
is  not  an  earthly  parent's  prerogative. 

Nor  does  he  understand  the  relative  or  intrin- 
sic heinousness  of  sin  or  disobedience.  It  is  also 
a  fact  that  the  analogy  of  an  earthly  parent  is  not 
traceable  in  every  point  up  to  the  heavenly 
father.  As  long  as  there  is  an  analogy  in  the  re- 
lations of  the  earthly  and  heavenly  parent,  it  is 
safe  to  reason  from  one  to  the  other.  But  in  try- 
ing to  make  what  an  earthly  parent  does  in  some 
oases,  the  rule  by  which  the  heavenly  father  is 
to  act  in  air  instances  is  extremely  illogical  and 
absurd.  The  fact  that  a  father  weakens  in  a 
given  crisis,  and  is  unable  to  extend  his  punish- 
ments may  be  both  wise  and  salutary.  But  to 
call  his  weakness  goodness  is  a  misnomer. 

James  Freeman  Clark,  in  using  the  "fatherhood 


65 

of  God"  argument  says:— "If  God  is  a  father, he 
is  at  least  as  good  as  the  best  earthly   father." 

To  which  we  reply  :  that  the  essential  errors  in 
this  argument  are  the  assumption  that  because  a 
man  does  some  things  under  certain  circumstan- 
stances,theref<  >re  God  will  do  likewise ;  and  also  the 
assumption  that  God's  ''fatherhood"  includes  no 
higher  functions  than  man's.  If  one  will  but 
oast  his  eyes  about  him,  he  will  not  be  long  in 
discovering  that  God.  as  our  father,  does  many 
things  from  which  our  earthly  parent  shrinks  in 
weakness  and  horror. 

Sufficient  for  the  present  line  of  argument  is  the 
indubitable  fact  that  domestic  government  im- 
plies the  authority  of  the  parent  and  the  obedi- 
ence of  the  child.  Where  there  is  no  authority 
in  the  parent,  it  is  because  he  is  unfitted  for  this 
august  relation,  and  where  authority  reigns,  dis- 
obedience is  followed  by  punishment,  and  this 
punishment  is  commended  by  the  good  sense  of 
both  parent  and  child,  and  the  enlightened  of 
the  community. 

Calvin  Townsend  says: — "This  was  the  first 
and  the  oldest  human  government.  It  is  family 
government,  or  that  form  exercised  by  the  father 
over  his  family.  From  the  necessary  relations 
of  a  father  to  his  household,  this  kind  of 
government  is  founded  in  nature.  It  existed 
from  the   earliest   before  ages,  long   states   and 


66 

nations  were  known,  and  while  there  were  but 
few  inhabitants  on  the  earth.  It  was  the  only 
form  until  several  centuries  after  the  flood. 
Strictly  speaking,  it  lies  at  the  foundation  of  all 
good  government.  When  every  father  becomes 
a  true  patriarch  at  home,  the  national  security 
will  rest  on  the  moral  sense  and  intelligence  of 
the  people."     (Civ.  Gov.  pp.  3—4.) 


CHAPTER  III. 

APPLIED    IN    CIVIL   GOVERNMENT. 


HE  second  department  of  the  discussion  per- 
tains t<>  the  power  of  the  state  or  nation;  and 
is  properly  known  as  Civil  Government. 

"The  sovereign  of  a  nation  governs  the  people 
of  whom  it  is  constituted.  No  nation  could  ex- 
ist, as  such,  for  a  single  month  without  orga- 
nized government  in  some  form  or  other. 

t;  No  citizen  could  enforce  his  rights  to  security* 
of  property  and  personal  safety  against  the  at- 
tacks of  the  vicious  and  depraved.  He  would 
not  be  safe  under  his  own  roof,  but  would  be  in- 
constant danger  while  sleeping  in  his  own  bed,, 
and  reposing  on  his  own  pillow. 

This  would  be  a  condition  of  fearful  anarchy.. 
Under  such  a  state  of  things,  no  person  could 
feel  the  least  interest  in  the  accumulation  of  pro- 
perty; for  it  would  be  sure  to  be  wrested  from  him 
by  the  hands  of  thieves  and  robbers.  He  could 
feel  no  incentive  to  the  cultivation  of  fields  and 
gardens;  for  they  would  be  despoiled  by  ruthless 
vandals  and  reckless  marauders.  Without  the 
power  of  government   in  some  organized  form,. 


68 

the  sufferers  from  such  outrages  could  obtain  no 
redress,  except  through  those  retaliatory  meas- 
ures that  must  lead  to  anarchy  and  bloodshed 
among  the  parties  concerned.  There  would  be 
no  tribunal  by  which  to  try,  condemn,  and  by 
whose  authority  to  punish  such  offenders.  The 
weak  must  surrender  to  the  strong,  and  right 
must  give  way  to  might.  Mere  physical  force 
and  brutality  would  triumph  over  justice  and 
reason.  The  strong  man,  like  the  strong  beast 
•of  the  forest,  would  be  king  among  his  kindred. 
But  under  the  authority  of  good  government, 
the  bad  man  however  gigantic  in  form  and 
strength,  may  be  restrained  in  his  vices,  and 
punished  for  his  crimes.''  Townsend.  (Civil 
(Government.) 

The  fact  and  authority  of  civil  government  are 
before  us.  Its  necessity  and  wholesomeness  are 
presumptively  proved  by  its  presence.  Nothing 
is  more  evident  than  that,  without  effective  laws, 
no  government  can  exist  successfully.  And  ef- 
fective laws  are  those,  in  the  violation  of  which, 
there  is  the  forfeiture  of  the  opportunity,  for  a 
greater  or  less  time,  for  committing  the  same 
transgression  again.  As  the  power  to  exercise 
law  becomes  more  comprehensive,  so  also  does 
th£  penalty  become  more  absolute  and  final. 

Just  as  the  administration  of  God's  judgments 
are  surer  than  those  of  civil  penalty,  so  civil  pun- 


69 

ishment  is  more  absolute  than  chastening,  result- 
ing from  disobedience  to  parents.  But,  however, 
given  a  clear  case,  and  allowing  justice  to  take 
its  course,  the  results  of  violated  law  are  usually 
administered.  The  lessons  to  be  learned  from 
civil  government  are  forceful  as  far  as  the  penal- 
ties are  founded  upon  righteousness,  and  compre- 
hend the  motive  from  which  action  springs,  as 
well  as  the  object  toward  which  violence  is  directed. 
The  sphere  of  civil  government  is  limited.  It 
pretends  to  deal,  not  so  much  with  motives,  as 
with  fact. 

"Earthly  courts  and  judges  look  at  the  trans- 
gression of  law,  with  reference  to  man's  temporal 
relations,  not  his  eternal.  Thev  punish  an  of- 
fence as  a  crime  against  the  state,  not  as  a  sin 
against  God.  Neither  do  they  look  into  the 
human  heart,  and  estimate  crime  in  its  absolute 
and  intrinsic  nature,  as  does  the  Searcher  of 
Hearts  and  the  Omniscient  Judge. 

A  human  tribunal  punishes  maiming,  we  will 
say,  with  six  months  imprisonment,  because  it 
does  not  take  into  consideratien  either  the  mali- 
cious  and  wicked  anger  that  prompts  the  maim- 
ing, or  the  dishonor  done  to  the  Supreme  being 
by  the  transgression  of  his  commandment.''  Dr. 
Sliced.  (Endless  Punishment.) 

Says  Paley  (Moral  Philosophy)  ''Human  laws 
omit  many  duties,  such  as  piety  to  God,  bounty 


70 

to  the  poor,  forgiveness  of  injuries,  education  of 
children,  gratitude  to  benefactors.  And  they 
permit,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  suffer  to  go 
unpunished,  many  crimes,  such  as  luxury,  prodi- 
gality, caprice  in  the  disposition  of  property  by 
will,  disrespect  to  parents,  and  a  multitude  of 
similar  examples." 

Where  civil  crime  is  allowed  to  go  unpunished 
it  is  obviously  because  of  some  circumstance 
that  is  never  regarded  as  giving  a  precedent  nor 
rule  by  which  a  similar  case  should  be  decided. 
Where  there  is  satisfactory  evidence  of  crime, 
and  justice  is  allowed  its  course,  the  penalty  of 
broken  lawT  must  be  experienced  by  the  violator. 

This  is  so  true  and  evident  that  it  hardly  needs 
proof.  Yet  the  evidence  is  so  common-place, 
and  the  truth  so  easily  and  forcibly  attested  that 
reference  to  the  facts  may  go  far  to  confirm  a 
criminal  are  not  sufficient  motives  to  lead  to  his 
release  or  pardon.  There  must  be  more  than  a 
feeling  of  commiseration  for  an  unfortunate  law- 
breaker. One  needs  a  lively  sense  of  the  fact 
that  the  government,  and  its  laws  must  be  pre- 
served. Also  the  dutiful  and  law-abiding  have 
rights  that  are  disregarded  in  the  liberation  of 
him  who  is  a  criminal. 

Our  penitentaries  forcibly  proclaim  the  whole- 
sorneness  of  retribution.  Our  county  jails  are  a 
menace  to  the  lawless.     Our   houses  for  correc- 


71 


tion  and  "work-houses"  are  unequivocal  in  their 
testimony  as  to  the  necessity,  hence  legitimacy, 
of  rendering  due  punishment  to  the  guilty  and 
offending.     No  palliating  circumstances  can  mit- 
igate against  this  use   of  law.     He  may  have 
been  intoxicated,  he  may  have  inherited  a  dis- 
position   to    steal,   he    may  have  been  thrown 
into  society,  that,  but  too  surely  developed  his 
latent  iniquity  and  lawlessness,  yet  the  law  holds 
the  offender    guilty  as  a  criminal.     And    this 
disposition  to  bring  the  criminal  to  account  can 
never  be  criticised  as  unfeeling  or  unnatural.     No 
one  can  reasonably  suppose   that  the  penalty  ex- 
presses a  disposition  to  hate  the  offender.     Love 
for  rectitude,  and  the  protection  of  the  law-abid- 
ing, may  be  the   greatest  necessity  in  the  case. 
Rev.  John  W.  Haley,  M.  A.,  says  "  Tiie  jailor, 
as  he  locks  the  door  of  the  dungeon,  feels  com- 
passion for  the  prisoner,   but  may  not  interfere 
with  the  course  of  justice,  or  endanger  the  wel- 
fare of  society,  by  suffering  the  culprit  to  escape. 
We  can  easily  see  that  leniency  to  the  criminal 
might  prove  the  greatest  cruelty  to  the  innocent. 
The  judge,  as  he  puts   on   the   "black-cap,"  to 
pronounce  sentence  of  death  upon  a  human  be- 
ing, is  not  infrequently  moved  to  tears;  still  his 
duty  toward  the  public  will  not  permit  him  to 
let  the  murderer  go  free.     There  are  other,  and 
far  weightier,  considerations  than  the  mere  emo- 


72 

tion  of  pity.  The  needful  sanctions  of  the  law, 
the  welfare  of  society,  the  interests  of  the  inno- 
cent and  unprotected,  the  prevention  of  crime, — 
all  these  motives  constrain  the  judge  to  pro- 
nounce the  dread  sentence.  And,  be  it  remem- 
bered, the  penalty  is  not  inflicted  as  revenge. 
It  is  simply  "the  necessary  exponent  of  the 
law.  Without  it,  the  law  would  be  a  dead  letter. 
On  the  same  principle  we  shut  up  evil-doers  in 
penitentaries,  and  infected  persons  in  pest-houses, 
for  the  public  good. " 

Nor  are  all  the  punishments  of  the  civil  law 
for  the  reformation  of  the  lawless.  Some  pun- 
ishments do  not  recognize  the  possibility  nor 
probability  of  reform.  If  the  man,  who  is  incar- 
cerated for  the  term  of  life,  expects  to  reform, 
the  penalty  for  his  crime  is,  however,  of  such 
duration  as  not  to  allow  his  reformation  to  be- 
come socially  nor  legally  possible.  And  the  in- 
dividual who  "  hangs  by  the  neck  till  he  is  dead5' 
is  wholly  cut  off  from  the  hope  of  any  sort  of  re  - 
formation. 

These  last  instances  indicate  that  the  people 
see  no  inconsistency,  nor  injustice,  in  rendering- 
such  extreme  punishment  as  to  cut  off  all  hope 
for  reformation. 

It  is  also  the  recorded  testimony  of  centuries 
that  all  punishment  is  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
punished.     And,  since  the  infliction  of  death  is 


73 

the  crisis  attained  in  the  punishment  of  lawless- 
ness, it  must  include  the  greatest  number  of  in- 
centives to  good,  and  the  most  successful  manner 
of  dealing  with  the  crime  of  which  the  death 
penalty  is  the  result,  It  plainly  declares  that 
some  kinds  of  sin  are  so  heinous  as  to  launch 
their  perpetrators  beyond  the  hope  or  advisability 
of  repentance. 

The  penalty  for  murder  in  the  first  degree  in 
each  of  the  states  and  territories,  in  the  United 
States,  with  the  exception  of  about  three,  is  death 
by  hanging.  In  New  York  it  is  death  by  elec- 
trocution, and  in  Michigan  (1890)  imprisonment 
for  life.  Hon.  R.  F.  Glenn  says:—"  In  all  states. 
and  territories  the  penalty  (for  murder  in  the 
first  degree)  is  the  permanent  retiring  of  the 
criminal  from  society"  (1894). 

The  preservation  of  the  law,  and  the  welfare' 
of  society,  demand  the  payment  of  the  penalty  at 
the  hands  of  the  criminal.  And  who  will  assert 
that  the  death  penalty  is  undeserved  or  unreason- 
able. The  possibility  of  reformation  and  effect- 
ive repentance  has  been  eliminated,  and  the  only 
consolation  the  criminal  has  is  the  fact  that  his. 
government  punishes  crime  and  rewards  virtue. 
That  there  is  an  analogy  between  physical  death, 
as  a  penalty  for  crime,  and  eternal  death,  as  the- 
wanes  of  sin,  is  fearfully  true.  The  technical 
make-shift  that  there  is  a   difference   between 


74 

being  eternally  punished,  and  being  in  a  state  or 
•condition  where  one  suffers  conscious  punish- 
ment eternally  is  most  unworthy  and  absurd. 
Neither  physical  death,  as  a  penalty,  nor  eternal 
death  as  the  wages  of  sin,  introduce  their  victims 
into  a  state  of  unconscious  punishment.  Did  the 
murderer  believe  the  extinction  of  physical  life 
terminated  the  sufferings  due  his  crime,  he 
would  seek  rather  than  avoid  it.  The  thought 
that  the  last  stroke  of  earthly  vengeance  and  law 
launches  him  into  a  condition  and  place  where  he 
will  just  begin  to  realize  the  lashings  of  con- 
science and  feel  the  repugnance  of  defamed  vir- 
tue, goes  far  to  make  death  a  penalty  more  near- 
ly suited  to  his  crime,  and  also  the  analogy  to 
the  "  wages  of  sin." 

Carlyle  says: — "On  the  whole  we  are  not  here 
altogether  to  tolerate.  We  do  not  tolerate  False- 
hoods, Thieveries,  Iniquities, — we  say  to  them, 
'Thou  art  not  tolerable  !  We  are  here  to  extin- 
guish falsehoods,  and  put  an  end  to  them  in 
some  wise  way.  Tolerance  has  to  be  just  in  its 
very  wrath,  when  it  can  tolerate  no  longer." 

It  is  only  a  morbid  sentimentality,  entirely  at 
variance  with  what  we  see  interwoven  with  the 
whole  web  of  existence,  which  prompts  one  to  ig- 
nore this  essential  condition  of  things.  A  vacil- 
lating prince  in  a  time  of  impending  revolt,  or 
.an  irresolute  judge  in  the  face  of  defiant  crimin- 


als,  is  not  a  friend,  but  the  worst  enemy  society 
can  have.  To  compromise,  then,  is  no  exhibi- 
tion of  the  genuine  quality  of  mercy.  It  is  con- 
fession of  weakness,  and  worse — it  is  deliberately 
<l  unchaining  the  tiger."  And  herein  lies  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  irrevocableness  of  future  judg- 
ment. There  can,  then,  be  no  weakening  in  the 
un bending  decisiveness  of  Him  who  sitteth  on 
the  throne,  which  will  not  send  a  shudder  of  dis- 
location through  the  moral  bonds  of  immensity. 
Do  not  our  State  governments  immure  criminals 
for  life?  May  not  punishment  continue  as  long 
as  sinning?  Why,  then,  may  it  not  be  true  that 
the  Supreme  Governor  of  the  Universe  may  im- 
mure in  the  State  Prison  of  the  Universe,  such  as 
cannot  be  permitted  to  go  at  large  without  jeop- 
ardizing the  order,  harmony,  peace,  and  happi- 
ness of  the  Universe?"     (Doom  Eternal). 


CHAPTER     IV. 

MANIFESTED    IN   THE    GOVERNMENT    OF   GOJX 

V||.j  HE  Government  of  God  will  next  occupy 
^P  our  attention.  It  is  with  reverence  that  Ave 
would  speak  of  the  ' '  ways  of  God. "  He  is  a  Gov- 
ernor as  certainly  as  He  is  a  Father.  He  has 
His  laws  with  appropriate  penalties  attached  to 
their  disregard.  What  He  does  is  right.  We 
cannot  reason  to  Him.  We  must  content  our- 
selves to  reason  from  Him.  Our  surest  knowl- 
edge of  His  judgments  must  come  through  His 
revelation.  There  we  discern  that  "justice  and 
judgment  are  the  habitations  of  his  throne." 

He  is  described  by  inany  expressions  which 
prove  Him  to  be  a  Law-Giver.  The  history  of 
God's  ways  with  the  children  of  men  is  also  a 
history  of  law.  The  human  family,  and  particu- 
larly that  nation  which  was  the  chosen  medium 
of  His  truth,  know  God  as  a  law-abiding  and 
law-exacting  being. 

The  first  stroke  of  the  inspired  pen  gives  us  an 
account  of  man  legally  related  to  God.  If  mercy 
is  the  enemy  of  justice,  there  can  be  no  explana- 
tion  to    the    death    penalty    pronounced    upon 


Adam.  Eliminate  the  principle  of  law  and  we 
say,  \vitlmut  hesitancy,  that  God  could  moreeasily 
have  avoided  the  death  penalty  than  by  a 
vicarious  atonement. 

We  assume  to  believe,  that,  if  some  one  of 
those  who  are  "wise  above  what  is  written," 
had  been  consulted  in  the  adjustment  of  the 
catastrophe  that  involved  the  death  sentence  they 
would  either  have  had  to  reconstruct  legal  usage, 
or  change  their  present  ideas  of  God. 

We  speak  of  the  inevitable.  We  usually  re- 
late this  to  impotence  of  a  human  sort,  but  we 
can  easily  see  in  the  fall  of  Adam  a  divine  in- 
evit  ible  that  argues  no  intelligent  impotence, 
but  expresses  free-will  and  justice.  We  are  not 
warranted  in  assuming  that  Adam  and  Eve  were 
cognizant  of  the  extent  nor  import  of  the  penalty 
they  incurred  till  its  weight  fell  upon  them. 

God's  requirement  in  this  case  was  positive. 
ii  The  nature  of  the  prohibition  made  to  Adam 
has  been  considered  by  some  as  a  ground  of  seri- 
ous complaint  against  the  divine  administration. 
In  reference  to  this  prohibition,  it  may  be  ob- 
served, that  the  objection  is  not  that  man  was 
placed  under  a  law — the  propriety  of  this,  all 
who  acknowledge  that  he  was  constitute  1  a  moral 
agent,  must  admit,  but  the  ground  of  com- 
plaint is  against  the  peculiar  character  of  the 
law.     ''What  harm  could  there  be  in  eating  an 


78 

apple, "  it  is  asked,  "  that  our  first  parents  should 
be  placed  under  so  strict  and  unreasonable  a 
restraint  ?" 

To  this  we  reply  that  we  can  see  no  just  reason 
for  complaint,  because  the  prohibition  was  what 
has  been  termed,  not  a  moral,  but  a  positive  pre- 
cept. In  reference  to  moral  precepts,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  the  reasonableness  of  the  duty  is 
not,  in  every  case,  equally  obvious.  May  we  not 
therefore  infer  that,  in  positive  precepts,  a  suffi- 
cient reason  for  them  may  exist,  in  the  mind  of 
God,  which,  in  consequence  of  the  weakness  of 
our  understanding,  we  cannot  perceive?  That 
our  minds  do  not  perceive  the  reason  upon  which 
a  command  is  founded,  cannot  possibly  be  an 
evidence  that  no  such  reason  exists,  with  any 
who  admit  the  finiteness  of  the  human  under- 
standing. Therefore,  to  object  to  the  prohibi- 
tion as  unreasonable,  because  we  do  not  perceive 
the  reason  upon  which  it  is  founded,  is  seen  to 
be  fallacious."     T.  N.  Ralston,  D.  D. 

Adam  disobeyed,  and  the  penalty  was  inflicted. 
Six  thousand  years  have  witnessed  the  withering,, 
baneful  effects  of  one  sin. 

If  God  has  not  been  moved  by  the  hopeless 
condition,  and  pitiless  cries  of  His  children — He 
is  no  God  of  love!  And  yet  He  has  never  re- 
voked His  pristine  decision  to  manifest  that  love. 

He  that    offendeth    in  one  point  is  guilty  of 


70 

the  whole,  is  a  New  Testament  interpretation 
of  the  same  principle  that  led  God  to  pronounce 
the  curse  on  Adam  and  Eve,  and,  through  them 
on  their  posterity.  At  present  we  do  not  assume 
to  decide  upon  the  nature  of  the  penalty  inflicted 
upon  Adam.  We  simply  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  Adam,  without  the  complete  knowledge 
we  now  have  of  divine  jurisprudence,  severed 
himself  and  his  posterity  from  God  by  his  first 
offence— and  the  friends  of  the  Gospel  have 
never  regarded  this  act  of  justice  as  questionable. 

Kant  says:  "  The  notion  of  ill-desert  and  pun- 
ishableness,  is  necessarily  implied  in  the  idea  of 
voluntary  transgression;  and  the  idea  of  punish- 
ment excludes  that  of  happiness  in  all  its  forms. 
In  every  instance  of  punishment,  properly  so 
called,  justice  is  the  very  first  thing,  and  consti- 
tutes the  essence  of  it.  All  that  he  (the  criminal) 
deserves  is  punishment,  and  that  is  all  that  he- 
can  expect  from  the  law  which  he  has  trans- 
gressed." 

The  principal  modern  advocates  who  claim 
that  punishment  is  based  upon  expediency  and 
utility  are  Beccaria  and  Bentham.  Dr.  Shedd 
tells  us  that  from  these  writers  this  theory  has- 
passed  considerably  into  jurisprudence,  and  Aus- 
tin, a  popular  writer  on  law,  follows  Bentham. 
He  further  states  that  the  theory  which  founds 
punishment  upon  justice,  which  evidently  is  the 


80 

Scriptural  theory,  is  quite  historical,  and  has  for 
its  devotees  the  following  galaxy  of  worthy 
names:  Plato  (Laws  X.  904.  005),  Cicero  (De 
Legibus  1.14  sg\).  Grotius  and  the  great  English 
jurists,  Coke  Bacon.  Selden  and  Blackstone:  also 
Kant,  Herbert,  Stahl,  Hortenstein,  Rothe  and 
Woolsey  define  punishment  as  the  satisfaction  of 
law  and  justice.  To  found  the  law  of  punish- 
ment on  any  other  than  the  principle  of  justice 
is  to  practically  concede  its  entire  uselessness. 
The  theory  that  punishment  is  necessary  simply 
as  an  example,  and  for  the  moral  improvement 
of  others,  is  not  intelligent.  "  Suppose  that 
there  were  but  one  person  in  the  universe.  If  he 
•should  transgress  the  law  of  God,  then,  upon  the 
principle  of  expediency  as  the  ground  of  penalty 
this  solitary  subject  of  moral  government  could 
not  be  punished — that  is,  visited  with  a  suffering 
that  is  purely  retributive,  and  not  exemplary  or 
corrective.  His  act  has  not  injured  the  public, 
for  there  is  no  public.  There  is  no  need 
of  his  suffering  as  an  example  to  deter 
others.  But  upon  the  principle  of  justice 
in  distinction  from  expediency,  this  solitary 
subject  of  moral  government  could  be  punished." 
That  this  case  of  Adam  is  not  thus  severe, 
simply  as  a  precedent,  warning  men  to  fear  God 
in  the  future  is  very  evident  from  the  fact  that 
'God  has  repeated   Himself  in   numerous  subse- 


81 

quent  acts  and  regulations,  harmonious  with  this 
first  disposition. 

Notice  again,  as  corroborative  of  our  position, 
the  case  of  the  Sabbath  breaker  which,  if  possible, 
is  still  more  personally  severe  than  Adam's  pun- 
ishment. "And  while  the  children  of  Israel 
were  in  the  wilderness,  they  found  a  man  that 
gathered  sticks  upon  the  Sabbath  day.  And  they 
that  found  him  gathering  sticks  brought  him 
unto  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  unto  all  the  congre- 
gation. And  they  put  him  in  ward,  because  it 
was  not  declared  what  should  be  done  to  him. 
And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  the  man  shall 
be  surely  put  to  death:  all  the  congregation  shall 
stone  him  with  stones  without  the  camp.  And 
all  the  congregation  brought  him  without  the 
camp,  and  stoned  him  with  stones,  and  he  died: 
as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses." — Num.  15:32-36. 
The  following  considerations  appear  from  the 
foregoing  case: 

First,  it  is  noticeable   that  the   crime    i-s    hu- 
manly disproportionate  to  the  penalty. 

Second,  God  decides  upon  the  relative  heinous- 
ness  of  the  offence. 

Third,  the  penalty  precludes  the  possible  chance 
for  practical  repentance. 

Fourth,  the  congregation  acquiesces  in  the  de- 
cision, and  inflicts  the  penalty. 

We  will  not  now  discuss  the  merits  or  demerit 


82 

of  this  incident.  It  stands  as  an  exponent  of  the- 
divine  economy,  as  it  appertains  to  offences- 
against  God's  government. 

The  following  excerpt  is  taken  from  the  book 
of  Leviticus,  as  showing  the  divine  attitude  to- 
wards a  transgressing  nation  as  surely  as  towards 
an  individual.  "But  if  ye  will  not  hearken  unto 
me.  and  will  not  do  all  these  commandments;  and 
if  ye  shall  despise  my  statutes,  or  if  your  souL 
abhor  my  judgments,  so  that  ye  will  not  do  all 
my  commandments,  but  that  ye  break  my  cove- 
nant: I  also  will  do  this  unto  you:  I  will  even  ap- 
point over  you  terror,  consumption,  and  burning 
ague,  that  shall  consume  the  eyes,  and  cause 
sorrow  of  heart:  and  ye  shall  sow  your  seed  ia 
vain,  for  your  enemies  shall  eat  it.  And  I  wilL 
set  my  face  against  you  and  ye  shall  be  slain 
before  your  enemies:  they  that  hate  you  shall 
reign  over  you.  and  ye  shall  flee  when  none  pur- 
sueth  you.  And  if  ye  will  not  yet  for  all  this 
hearken  unto  me;  then  I  will  punish  you  seven 
times  more  for  your  sins.  And  I  will  break  the 
pride  of  your  power;  and  I  will  make  your  heaven 
as  iron,  and  your  earth  as  brass:  and  your 
strength  shall  be  spent  in  vain:  for  your  land 
shall  not  yield  her  increase,  neither  shall  the 
trees  of  the  land  yield  their  fruits.  And  if  ye 
walk  contrary  unto  me,  and  will  not  hearken  unto- 
me,  I  will  also  send  wild  beasts  among  you,  which 


83 

shall  rob  you  of  your  children,  and  destroy  your 
cattle,  and  make  you  few  in  number;  and  your 
highways  shall  be  desolate.  And  if  ye  will  not 
be  reformed  by  these  things  but  will  walk  con- 
trary unto  me,  then  will  I  also  walk  contrary 
unto  you,  and  will  punish  you  yet  seven  times- 
for  your  sins.  And  I  will  bring  a  sword  upon 
you,  that  shall  a vrenge  the  quarrel  of  my  cove- 
nant: and  when  ye  are  gathered  together  within 
your  cities,  I  will  send  the  pestilence  among  you; . 
and  ye  shall  be  delivered  into  the  hand  of  the 
enemy.  And  when  I  have  broken  the  staff  of" 
your  bread,  ten  women  shall  bake  your  bread  in 
one  oven,  and  they  shall  deliver  you  your  bread 
again  by  weight:  and  ye  shall  eat  and  not  be  sat- 
isfied. And  if  ye  will  not  for  all  this  hearken 
unto  me,  but  walk  contrary  unto  me;  then  I  will 
walk  contrary  unto  you  also  in  fury;  and  I, 
even  I,  will  chastise  you  seven  times  for  your 
sins.  And  ye  shall  eat  the  flesh  of  your  sons, 
and  the  flesh  of  your  daughters  shall  ye  eat. 
And  I  will  destroy  your  high  places,  and  cut 
down  your  images,  and  cast  your  carcasses  upon 
the  carcasses  of  your  idols,  and  my  soul  shall 
abhor  you.  And  I  will  make  your  eities  waste, 
and  bring  your  sanctuaries  unto  desolation,  and 
I  will  not  smell  the  savor  of  your  sweet  odours. 
And  I  will  bring  the  land  into  desolation:  and 
your  enemies  which  dwell  therein  shall  be  aston- 


84 

islied  at  it.  And  I  will  scatter  you  among  the 
heathen,  and  I  will  draw  out  a  sword  after  you: 
and  your  land  shall  be  desolate,  and  your  cities 
waste.  Then  shall  the  land  enjoy  her  Sabbaths, 
as  long  as  it  lieth  desolate,  and  ye  be  in  your 
enemies'  land;  even  then  shall  the  land  rest,  and 
enjoy  her  Sabbaths.  As  long  as  it  did  not  rest 
in  your  Sabbaths  when  ye  dwelt  upon  it.  And 
upon  them  that  are  left  alive  of  you  I  will  send 
faintness  into  their  hearts  in  the  lands  of  their 
enemies;  and  the  sound  of  a  shaken  leaf  shall 
-chase  them;  and  they  shall  flee,  as  fleeing  from  a 
a-  sword;  and  they  shall  fall  when  none  pursueth. 
And  they  shall  fall  one  upon  another,  as  it  were 
"before  a  sword,  when  none  pursueth:  and  ye  shall 
have  no  power  to  stand  before  your  enemies. 
And  ye  shall  perish  among  the  heathen,  and  the 
land  of  your  enemies  shall  eat  you  up.  And  they 
that  are  left  of  you  shall  pine  away  in  their  ini- 
quity in  your  enemies'  lands;  and  also  in  the  ini- 
quities of  their  fathers  shall  they  pine  away  with 
them." 

The  foregoing  description  of  the  manner  in 
which  God  treats  offenders  against  His  law 
challenges  the  most  fanciful  imagination.  There 
is  the  utter  absence  of  apology  or  explanation. 
That  God  has  acted  in  the  manner  just  described 
by  his  own  words  should,  at  least,  fill  his 
creatures  with  fear,  that  under  similar  circum- 


85 

stances  He  mighl  do  the  same,  and  still  not  for- 
feit His  fatherhood  nor  love. 

The  familar  story  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  is 
well  at  hand:  demonstrative  of  the  authority  ex- 
ercised by  the  Divine  One  against  the  impudent 
and  impenitent.  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  have 
beennsedas  figures  and  synonyms  to  represent 
the  most  reprehensible  characteristics  and  sins. 
The  denunciation  of  the  prophet  Isaiah  against  an 
apostate  church  is  fitly  represented  in  the  follow- 
ing words:  "  Hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  ye  rulers 
of  Sodom:  give  ear  unto  the  law  of  our  God,  ye 
people  of  Gomorrah,"  and  then  denouncing  in 
forcible  language  their  mock  worship,  he  closes 
with  this  significent  passage:  "And  when  ye 
spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  mine  eyes 
from  you;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers.  I 
will  not  hear:  your  hands  are  full  of  blood.'-* 
Nor  is  the  case  in  need  of  any  private  interpreta- 
tion, or  special  pleading.  No  phase  of  New  Tes- 
tament truth  stands  against  it.  The  Holy  Spirit 
with  unbiased  wisdom  used  the  case  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  in  its  appropriate  sense.  The  apostle 
known  as  "  Jude  the  servant  of  Jesus  Christ" 
bases  a  fundamental  argument  upon  the  very 
case  under  consideration.  Writing  to  those  who 
■'are  sanctified  by  God  the  Father"  he  says: 
"  For  there  are  certain  men  crept  in  unawares, 
who  were  before  of  old  ordained  to  this  condem- 


86 

nation,  ungodly  men,  turning  the  grace  of  our 
God  into  lasciviousness,  and  denying  the  only 
Lord  God,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  will 
therefore  put  you  in  remembrance,  though  ye 
once  knew  this,  how  that  the  Lord,  having  saved 
the  people  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  afterward 
destroyed  them  that  believed  not.  And  the 
angels  which  kept  not  their  first  estate,  but  left 
their  own  habitation,  he  hath  reserved  in  ever- 
lasting chains  under  darkness  unto  the  judgment 
of  the  great  day.  Even  as  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
and  the  cities  about  them  in  like  manner,  giving 
themselves  over  to  fornication,  and  going  after 
strange  flesh,  are  set  forth  for  an  example, 
suffering  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire."  (Jude 
4-7). 

Whatever  may  be  the  truth  behind  the  scenes, 
Jude,  evidently,  holds  to  the  orthodox  opinion 
concerning  God's  right  to  punish  eternally  those, 
who  in  His  judgment  deserve  and  merit  it. 

So  far  we  have  been  dealing  with  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. We  now  turn  to  the  New  Testament  for 
further  evidence.  The  opinion  may  be  obtaining, 
in  some  quarters,  that  the  adherents  to  the  doc- 
trine of  endless  punishment  are  forced  to  the  Old 
Testament  for  most  of  their  proof.  We  wish  to 
disabuse  the  minds  of  our  readers  of  this  opinion. 
One  of  the  most  prominent  and  authoritative 
passages,  establishing  the  law  of  punishment  and 


87 

principle  of  retribution  in  God.  is  found  in  Acts, 
chapter  5,  verses  1-11.  "But  a  certain  man 
named  Ananias,  with  Sapphira  his  wife,  sold  a 
possession,  and  kept  hack  part  of  the  price,  his 
wife  also  being  privy  to  it,  and  brought  a  certain 
part,  and  laid  it  at  the  apostles'  feet.  But  Peter, 
said,  Ananias  why  hath  Satan  filled  thine  heart 
to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  keep  back  part 
of  the  price  of  the  land?  While  it  remained, 
was  it  not  thine  own?  and  after  it  was  sold,  was 
it  not  in  thine  own  power?  why  hast  thou  con- 
ceived this  thing  in  thine  heart  ?  thou  hast  not 
lied  unto  men,  but  unto  God.  And  Ananias 
hearing  these  words  fell  down,  and  gave  up  the 
.ghost:  and  great  fear  came  on  all  them  that 
heard  these  things.  And  the  young  men  arose, 
wound  him  up,  and  carried  him  out,  and  buried 
him.  And  it  was  about  the  space  of  three  hours 
after,  when  his  wife,  not  knowing  what  was 
•done  came  in.  And  Peter  answered  unto  her,  Tell 
me  whether  ye  sold  the  land  for  so  much?  And 
she  said,  Yea,  for  so  much:  Then  Peter  said 
nnto  her,  How  is  it  that  ye  have  agreed  together 
to  tempt  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord?  Behold,  the 
feet  of  them  which  have  buried  thy  husband  are 
at  the  door,  and  shall  carry  thee  out.  Then  fell 
she  down  straight-way  at  his  feet,  and  yielded 
Tip  the  ghost:  and  the  young  men  came  in,  and 
found  her  dead,  and,  carrying  her  forth,  buried 


88 

lier  by  her  husband.  And  great  fear  came  upon 
all  the  church,  and  upon  as  many  as  heard  these 
things." 

That  God  will  inflict  retributive  punishment, 
is  evident  from  the  following  Scriptures,  Rom. 
12:10  "Vengeance  is  mine;  I  will  repay,  saith 
the  Lord. "  11  Thess.  1:7,  8,  "The  Lord  Jesus, 
shall  be  revealed  from  heaven  with  his  mighty 
angels,  in  flaming  fire  taking  vengeance  on 
them  that  know  not  God,  and  that  obey  not  the; 
Gospel."  Rom.  2:0,  8,  9,  "  Who  will  render  to 
every  man  according  to  his  deeds:  unto  them  that, 
are  contentious,  and  do  not  obey  the  truth,  but 
obey  unrighteousness,  indignation  and  wrath,, 
tribulation  and  anguish,  upon  every  soul  of  man 
that  doeth  evil." 


PART  II. 

TESTIMONY    OF    HEATHEN,  JEWISH  ANI> 
CHRISTIAN  WRITERS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

NON-CHRISTIAN    BELIEFS. 

jfl  HE  consideration  of  a  theme  so  great  as  eter- 
^T  nal  doom  must,  of  necessity,  liave  in  it  an 
interest  second  to  no  other  question  pertaining 
to  human  destiny.  If  there  be  the  fact  of  hell, 
it  cannot  be  incidental  and  secondary.  It  must 
be  fundamentally  important.  Neither  can  it 
reasonably  be  a  fact  hidden  beneath  the  surface, 
only  obtainable  by  abstruse  metaphysics  and 
syllogistic  reasonings. 

We  might,  therefore,  expect  to  find  the  con- 
ception of  it  woven  into  the  woof  and  fibre  of 
the  universe,  and  also  a  possession  of  the  native 
mind,  safely  intrenched  in  the  fastnesses  of  axio- 
matic truths.  To  know  that  a  belief  in  some 
sort  of  future  retribution  has  been  the  rule  of  the 
world,  is  significant.  It  seems  to  say  that 
human  intelligences  are  so  constructed  as  to  de- 
mand it,  and,  also  that  such  a  general  tendency 
to  this  belief  is  presumptive  proof  of  its  neces- 
sity, truthfulness  and  legitimacy. 

A  thought  so  repulsiye  to  the  sinner,  as  eternal 
misery,  would  meet   with   immediate  denial,    if 


92 

simple  sentimentalism  were  to  decide  the  ques- 
tion. 

It  lias  been  urged  that  the  single  fact  that 
mankind,  in  all  ages,  have  believed  in  future1 
punishment  is  no  argument  in  its  favor,  and  does; 
not  prove  it  to  be  a  tenable  position.  It  is  saidl 
that  mankind  have  also  regarded,  with  favor,, 
other  beliefs  and  tenets  quite  contrary  to  logic 
and  revelation. 

We  grant  the  force  of  this  argument  on  gen- 
eral grounds,  but  are  quite  unwilling  to  admit 
its  potency  when  applied  to  the  question  of 
future  retribution. 

The  heart  of  man  is  deceitful  above  all  things 
and  desperately  wicked.  We  cannot  grant  the 
hypothesis  that  mankind  would  have  fallen  into- 
the  error  of  believing  in  a  place  of  future  tor- 
ment; for  the  very  feelings  of  the  depraved- 
heart  would  be  interested  in  its  overthrow. 

Look  around  you,  and  see  who  those  are  who 
reject  the  doctrine  of  future  punishment.  Are 
they  persons  who  have  a  concise  and  profound 
regard  for  God's  law,  and  maintain  a  holy  walk 
with  God  ?  We  fear  the  answer  to  this  question 
would  be  embarassing. 

A  general  belief  in  heaven  might  easily  have 
taken  possession  of  mankind;  for  their  selfishness 
might  have  impelled  them  toward  its  reception. 
But  it  would  be  an  anomaly  of  unparalleled  sur- 


93 

5>rise  to  find  men  transmitting,  from  age  to  age, 
the  knowledge  of  a  truth,  the  outcome  of  which 
would  be  their  ruin  in  a  world  of  outer  darkness 
—when   such    knowledge   is   falsely    based,   and 
supported  by  a  fanciful  imagination!    If  we  are 
to  interpret  the  facts  of  mankind,  we  must  do  so 
in    keeping    with    the    laws     governing     men's 
thoughts,    beliefs,    and    actions.     And    until   we 
know  thai   men  have  a  selfish   interest  and  pur- 
pose in  the  propaganda  of  the  doctrineof  endless 
doom,  we  must  believe  that  such  propaganda   is 
the  result,  not  of  selfish  choice  and  human  error, 
but  is  the  resultant  of  an  inevitable  that  controls 
them,  and  causes  even  "the  wrath  of  man"  to 
praise  God. 

Rev.  J.  B.  Reimensnyder  aptly  says:—"  Assur- 
edly, them  there  can  be   nothing  repugnant    in 
this  doctrine  to  the  moral  intuition  of  mankind, 
if,    without    any    other   light   than    that    which 
shone  forth  from  the  temple  within,  the  race  yet 
felt   constrained   to   acknowledge  and  adopt   it! 
But  rather  does  this  affirmation  of  the  eternity 
of  future  punishment  by  the  non-Christian  reli- 
gions of  antiquity,  prove  that  it  is  one  of  those 
generic  truths  going  down  to  the  foundations  of 
human   thought— one   of   those   necessary    ideas 
irresistibly  demanded  by  the  rational  constitution 
•of  man— one  of  those  great  luminaries  of  natural 
religion,  whose  rays,  even  amid  all  the  benight- 


94 

ing  effects  of  the  fall,  have  still  not  altogether 
vanished  from  the  sky.  And  this  significant 
fact  should  imbue  with  becoming  modesty  those 
who  are  wont  so  confidently  to  obtrude  what  they 
unwarrantedly  assume  to  be  the  innate  voice  of 
reason  upon  this  problem,  but  which  really  is 
their  perverted  view  of  it.  For  this  admitted 
intuition  of  the  heathen  world  demonstrates 
clearly  that  the  verdict  of  the  universal  con- 
sciousness sustains  the  view  propounded  by  reve- 
lation. " 

We  will  adduce  some  facts  concerning  the 
belief  of  the  non-Christian  religions,  in  support 
of  the  foregoing  statement.  These  statements 
cover  the  belief  of  the  Hindoos,  Egyptians, 
Romans  and  Greeks,  etc. 

' '  Among  the  ancient  Egyptians  this  doctrine 
(eternal  punishment)  found  impersonation  in  the 
deity,  Osiris,  who  is  represented  in  their  works  of 
sacred  art  as  sitting  upon  a  judgment  seat  in  the 
realms  below,  allotting  their  respective  destiny 
to  departed  spirits.  Having  weighed  each  heart 
in  his  inexorable  scales,  he  thereupon  sent  the 
wicked  to  regions  of  perpetual  darkness,  but  the 
virtuous,  having  first  been  permitted  to  drink  of 
the  water  of  immortal  youth,  which  distilled  like 
dew  from  the  tree  of  life  eternal,  were  admitted 
to  the  realm  of  light  and  the  gods"  (Religions 
before  Christ). 

The   faith  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans   is. 


05 

Clear  and  well  defined,  and  if  their  writings  are 
consulted,  they  bear  unmistakable  testimony  as 
to  the  fact  of  future  rewards  and  punishment. 

•' Tartarus,  their  fabled  place  of  punishment 
in  the  future  world,  the  prison  in  which  the 
wicked  suffered  for  their  misdeeds,  was,  accord- 
ing to  their  system,  characterized  by  'eternal 
gloom  and  darkness.'"  (Keightley's  Classical 
Mythology). 

"  The  very  names  of  the  rivers,  whose  mourn- 
ful tides  washed  this  dark  abode,  as  Acheron, 
river  of  'eternal  woe.'  Pyriphlegethon,  stream 
of  'fire,'  Cocytos,  river  of  'weeping  and  wail- 
ing,' indicated  this  inexorableness  in  a  manner 
quite  as  strong  as  that  of  any  express  terms" 
(Manual  of  Mythology,  art.  Hades,  p.  59). 

Prof.  Tayler  Lewis  thus  describes  the  rigor  and 
certainty  of  the  Grecian  and  Roman  justice.. 
**  The  moral  aspect  (of  classical  mythology)  may 
be  seen  in  many  of  the  epithets  of  Zeus  employed 
by  Homer  and  the  Grecian  tragic  poets.  It  is 
strongly  manifested  in  that  whole  department  of 
mythology  which  has  reference  to  the  infernal 
deities.  It  appears  in  the  striking  personifica- 
tions of  Nemesis,  of  Adrasta,  or  the  Inescapable, 
and  of  the  ancient  Themis,  who  is  ever  repre- 
sented with  the  sword  and  scales,  and  sitting  at. 
the  right  hand  of  eternal  justice  in  the  heavens.. 
It  shows  itself  in  the  mythology  of  the  Destinies } 


OG 

-and  in  that  Grecian  doctrine  of  Fate,  which  had 
far  more  the  aspect  of  a  stern  moral  degree,  than 
of  a  physical  necessity. 

"  Moipa,  as  well  as  the  Latin  Fatum,  was  the  posi- 
tive divine  degree,  the  inexorable  law  of  a^,  in- 
flicting wretchedness,  and  coming  down  with 
immutable  and  unrelenting  severity." 

Justin  Martyr  says:  "When  we  assert  de- 
parted souls  to  be  in  a  state  sensibility,  and  the 
wicked  to  be  in  torments,  but  the  good  free  from 
pain  in  a  blissful  condition,  we  assert  no  more 
than  do  your  poets  and  philosophers. " 

The  doctrine  of  eternal  woe  is  expressly  stated 
by  the  Greek  and  Latin  writers. 

Cicero  used  the  expression  "sempiternum 
malum,''  and  Lucretius  used  the  expression 
"mors  immortal  is,"  and  a  distinguished  Grecian 
historian  thus  speaks :  ' '  Great  offenders  are 
doomed  to  a  kind  of  suffering  most  in  accordance 
with  the  character  of  the  infernal  realms,  to  the 
torment  of  unavailing  toil,  and  unsatisfied  long- 
ings. A  more  tremendous  prison,  removed  as 
far  below  hades  as  earth  is  from  heaven,  was 
reserved  for  the  audacious  enemies  of  Jupiter, 
the  abyss  of  Tartarus,  fast  secured  with  iron 
gates  and  a  brazen  floor/'     (Thirl wall). 

The  foregoing  excerpts  are  transcribed  from 
Keimensnyder. 

Mohammed    says: — "Those   who  believe  not 


97 

have  garments  of  fire  fitted  to  them;  boiling 
water  shall  be  poured  on  their  heads;  their 
bowels  shall  be  dissolved  thereby,  and  also  their 
skin;  and  they  shall  be  beaten  with  maces  of  iron. 
So  often  as  they  shall  endeavor  to  get  out  of  hell 
because  of  the  anguish  of  their  torments,  they 
shall  be  dragged  back  into  the  same,  and  their 
tormentors  shall  say,  "  Taste  ye  the  pains  of 
burning. "  Koran,  ch.  XXII.  Also,  "  It  shall 
be  said  unto  them.  Go  ye  into  punishment  which 
ye  denied  as  a  falsehood:  go  ye  into  the  smoke  of 
hell,  which  shall  arise  in  three  volumes,  and 
shall  not  shade  you  from  the  heat,  neither  shall 
it  be  of  service  against  the  flame:  but  it  shall 
cast  forth  sparks  as  big  as  towers,  resembling 
yellow  camels  in  color.''  Koran,  ch.  XXVII. 
(Quoted  from  Evidences  of  Christianity  by  Hop- 
kins p.  83.) 

:  We  also  add  to  the  testimony  already  given 
.some  estimable  and  worthy  corroborative  infor- 
mation, which  ought,,  to  the  candid  reader,  to  put 
this  feature  of  the  question  in  such  a  relation  to 
the  great  facts  that  go  to  make  a  proof,  as  will 
forever  settle  the  attitude  of  the  non-Christian 
religions. 

"  I  remark,  moreover,  that  the  heathen  had  no 
apprehension  of  deliverance  from  Tartarus. 
Tantalus,    Sisyphus,    Ixion,   and  all  others  sent 


98 

there,  were  doomed  to  endless  punishment,  in  the 
view  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans."  (Exegeti- 
cal  Essays). — Prof.  Stuart. 

"  These  things  then  being  so,  as  soon  as  the 
dead  arrive  at  that  region  whither  his  daemon 
carries  each  ******  those  who  appear  to  be 
incurable  on  account  of  their  enormous  offences, 
who  have  committed  either  many  and  flagrant 
sacrileges,  or  many  murders  in  contempt  of  jus- 
tice and  the  law,  or  any  other  similar  crimes — 
those  a  suitable  destiny  precipitates  into  Tartarus- 
whence  they  never  at  any  time  come  forth." — 
Phaedo,  p.  110. 

"And  this  is  like  the  opinion  of  the  Greeks, 
that  good  souls  have  their  habitations  beyond 
the  ocean,  in  a  region  that  is  neither  oppressed 
with  storms  of  rain,  or  snow,  or  with  intense 
heat,  but  that  this  place  is  such  as  is  refreshed 
by  the  gentle  breathing  of  a  west  wind,  that  is 
perpetually  blowing  from  the  ocean;  while  they 
allot  to  bad  souls  a  dark  and  tempestuous  den, 
full  of  never  ceasing  punishments.  And  indeed 
the  Greeks  seem  to  me  to  have  followed  the  same 
notion,  when  they  allot  the  islands  of  the  blessed 
to  their  brave  men,  whom  they  call  heroes  and 
demi  gods;  and  to  the  souls  of  the  wicked,  the 
region  of  the  ungodly,  in  Hades,  where  their 
fables  relate  that  certain  persons,  such  as  Sisy- 
X>hus,  and  Tantalus,  and  Ixion,  and  Tityus,  are 


99 

punished;  *  *  *  and  thence  are  those  exhorta- 
tions to  virtue,  and  dehortations  from  wicked- 
ness collected;  whereby  good  men  are  bettered 
in  the  conduct  of  their  life,  by  the  hope  they 
have  of  reward  after  their  death,  and  whereby 
the  vehement  inclinations  of  bad  men  to  vice  are 
restrained,  by  the  fear  and  expectation  they  are* 
in,  that  although  they  should  lie  concealed  in 
this  life,  they  should  suffer  immortal  punishment 
after  their  death." — Josephus,  (Wars  Bk.  II.  ch. 

VIII). 

Even  E.  Plumptre,  D.  D.,  whose  book  en- 
titled ''Spirits  in  Prison,"  written  in  the 
interest  of  the  "  wider  hope."  bears  testimony  to 
the  Egyptian  belief  in  future  retribution.  £[e 
says;  (p.- 35,36): — ktThe  fact  that  the  judgments 
of  that  unseen  future  were  conspicuously  promi- 
nent in  the  religious  system  of  the  people 
(Egyptians)  in  whose  wisdom  the  Hebrew  law- 
giver had  been  trained,  introduces  a  new  element 
into  the  problem,  and  may,  perhaps,  give  the* 
key  to  its  solution.  k  The  Ritual  of  the  Dead/  the 
sculptures  and  paintings  which  it  interprets  for 
us.  show  what  was  the  belief  of  every  Egyptian. 
When  he  died  his  soul  was  carried  over  the  wat- 
ers of  the  dark  river  to  Arnenti,  the  land  of  the 
dead.  It  appeared  before  Osiris  as  its  judge,  and 
wTas  compelled  to  confess  its  sins.     Its  good  and 


100 

evil  deeds  were  weighed  in  the  balance  and  its 
fate  determined  according  to  its  deserts." 

William  Barrows.  D.D..  in  Purgatory,  says: — 
'"The  ancient  Egyptians  were  fully  persuaded 
of  a  life  beyond  the  present,  and  a  life,  too, 
affected  by  discriminating  rewards  and  punish- 
ments." Concerning  the  Hindoo  belief  Ward 
says: — "The  Hindoos  in  general  manifest  great 
fear  of  future  punishment.  Sometimes,  after 
•committing  a  dreadful  sin,  these  fears  are 
expressed  to  a  friend  in  some  such  words  as 
these:  '  I  have  committed  a  shocking  crime,  and 
I  must  endure  great  and  long-continued  torments, 
but  what  can  I  do?  There  is  no  remedy  now/ 
^Sometimes  these  fears  are  so  great  that  they 
•drive  a  man  to  p>erform  many  works  of  merit, 
particularly  works  of  atonement.'*'  (Quoted  in 
Purgatory). 

We  get  a  very  fair  idea  of  the  expectation  of 
the  Hindoo  sinner  from  an  excerpt  in  Allen's 
India  p.  410.-111.  The  passage  is  as  follows: — 
"They  have  to  travel  six  hundred  and  eighty- 
eight  thousand  miles  to  the  court  of  Yama  (the 
judge  of  the  dead).  In  some  places  the  road 
consists  of  stones,  mud  and  sand,  burning  hot 
showers  of  sharp  instruments,  burning  cinders, 
and  scalding  water  fall  upon  them.  They  fall 
into  concealed  wells,  grope  their  way  through 
darkness,    and   meet  tigers   and   other  dreaded 


101 

animals.  At  length  they  arrive  at  the  court  of 
Varna  whose  appearance  is  terrible;  his  height  is 
two  hundred  and  forty  miles,  the  hairs  of  his 
body  are  as  long  as  a  palm-tree,  his  voice  is  as 
lond  as  thunder,  his  eyes  send  out  flames  of  fire, 
and  the  noise  of  his  breathing  is  like  a  roaring 
tempest.  His  conduct  towards  them  corresponds 
to  his  terrible  appearance."  (Purgatory  p.  L50). 
The  Zoroaster  system  reveals  the  following 
belief.  Rawlinson  says:  "Immediately  after 
death,  the  souls  of  men,  both  good  and  bad,  pro- 
ceed together  along  an  appointed  path  to  'the 
bridge  of  the  gathering."  Chinvat.  This  was  a 
narrow  road  conducting  to  heaven,  or  paradise. 
over  which  the  souls  of  the  pious  alone  could 
pass,  while  the  wicked  fell  from  it  into  the  gulf 
below,  where  they  found  themselves  in  the  place 
of  punishment."     (Quoted  in  Purgatory). 

"  Of  all  religions  in  the  world."  says  S.  Lane- 
Poole,"  Islam  is  the  most  uncompromising  in  its 
conception  of  hell.*' 

The  peculiar  ideas  of  the  Muslim  are  expressed 
quite  graphically  in  the  "torture  of  the  grave."' 
called  the  Azab  el  Kobr. 

The  following  questions  are  propounded  to  an 
infidel.  "  Who  is  thy  Lord?"  he  answers.  "Alas, 
alas!  I  know  not."  "What  is  thy  religion?" 
"Alas,  alas!  I  know  not:"  "What  of  the 
apostle  who    was  sent    to    thee?"     "Alas,   alas! 


102 

I  know  not."  Then  a  voice  from  heaven  cries 
out,  and  says,  "He  lieth:  therefore  spread  him 
a  bed  of  fire,  and  open  the  door  toward  Hell." 
Then  a  devil  with  a  hideous  face  looks  in  at  him, 
and  says,  "  I  am  thy  foul  actions,"  and  the 
doomed  man  exclaims,  "O  Lord,  delay  the  res- 
urrection !"     (Mishkat  1,  40,  H67). 

When  the  judgment  is  ready,  and  the  trumpet 
is  sounded  and  all  mankind  are  gathered  "like 
scattered  moths,"  then  Gabriel  stands  before  the 
Bridge  with  his  scales  to  weigh  good  and  evil 
actions.  The  following  poetical  strain  from  the 
Koran,  ch.  101,  expresses  the  result: 

"Then  as  tor  him  whose  scales  are  heavy, 

His  shall  be  a  life  well-pleasing; 

And  as  for  him  whose  scales  are  light, 

His  abode  shall  be  in  the  Bottomless  Pit. 

And  what  shall  teach  thee  what  that  is? 

"  A  raging  Fire!  " 

The  judgment  having  ended,  and  the  infidel's 
doom  having  been  sealed,  the  following  com- 
mand is  given:  "Take  him  and  chain  him, 
then  into  Hell  thrust  him  to  be  burned."  (Kor. 
63,  35). 

Lane-Poole  further  remarks  that  "  the  keepers 
chain  him  with  a  chain  of  seventy  cubits.  They 
thrust  him,  they  drag  him  on  the  face,  they 
seize  him  by  the  forelock  and  feet,  and  force  him 
upon  the  fatal  Bridge,  over  which  the  righteous 
are  running  so  lightly  and  easily:  and  down  he 


103 

falls  into  the  Fire,  while  they  pour  scalding 
water  over  his  skull.  One  after  another  the 
wicked  tumble  into  Hell,  till  the  angels  cry  out 
to  it,  "  Art  thou  full  ?"    and  Hell  answers,  "  Are 

there  more  ?" 

Then  begin  the  torments  that  never  cease;  the 
burning  that  ever  brands  but  consumes  not;  the 
everlasting  eating  of  the  thorny  bitter  fruit  of 
the  Zakkum,the  tree  of  Hell,  whose  apples  are  like 
devils  skulls;  the  drinking  of  gore  and  horrible 
corruption,  like  "dregs  of  oil  surging  up  within." 
The  following  places  in  the  Koran  can  be  con- 
sulted as  giving  information,  according  to  Lane- 
Poole,  on  this  question: — Koran,  38:57;  73:12; 
104:5;  01:40;  43:74;  74:27:  78:21;  88:3. 

To  close  this  reference  to  the  Muslim  belief  it 
is  necessary  to  add  that  the  Ijma,  or  recorded 
consensus  of  belief,  is  explicit  as  to  the  endless- 
ness of  the  punishments  the  faith  teaches. 

For  proof  of  this  see  Sell's  "  Faith  of  Islam," 
p.  1G0,  where  El  Barkami  is  quoted  as  saying: 
''It  is  necessary  to  acknowledge  that  the  tor- 
ments of  the  tomb  are  real  and  certain,  and  that 
Munkar  and  Nekir  will  come  and  examine  the 
dead;  that  all  living  things  will  die  *  *  *  that  the 
unbelievers  and  devils  will  remain  for  ever  in  Hell 
in  torment  by  serpents,  and  scorpions,  and  fire, 
and  scalding  water;  their  bodies  will  burn  into 
coal,  and  God  will  revive  them  so  that  they  may 
suffer  fresh  torments.     This  will  last  forever." 


CHAPTER  II. 


JEWISH   BELIEFS. 


E  come  now  to  consider  the  attitude  the 
^ LL  Jewish  nation,  distinctively,  sustains  to 
the  doctrine  of  Hell,  and  the  fact  of  future 
eternal  punishment. 

If  the  decision  of  nations  has  been  in  favor  of 
a  belief  in  Hell,  and  that  decision  the  attainment. 
of  intuition  and  philosophy,  we  are  not  unrea- 
sonable in  expecting  the  one  nation  which  God 
chose  as  a  special  people,  and  a  medium  for  the 
transmission  of  truth,  to  throw  a  clearer  light,  if 
possible,  upon  this  subject,  and  more  perfectly 
relieve  the  question  of  errors'  and  ignobilities 
which  cluster  around  the  crude  ideas  of  those 
who  groped  in  the  comparative  darkness  of 
natural  religion. 

The  Jews  as  a  nation  were  specially  guarded 
against  theological  errors.  God.  through  their 
representatives  and  leaders,  spoke  openly  and 
definitely  to  them.  At  any  times  of  digression,, 
the  prophet  sounded  the  tocsin  of  alarm,  and  by 
fierce  denunciations  and  scathing  reproofs,  would 
he  proclaim  the  judgments  of  God  against  those 


105 

who  would  remove  "the  ancient  landmarks "" 
which  the  fathers  had  set.  One  of  the  mosi  char- 
acteristic features  of  the  Hebrew  religion  was  the 
purity  of  its  doctrines.  And  the  reason  for  such 
purity,  was  the  special  care  which  God  exercised 
to  keep  the  Israelites  uncontaminated  from  the 
dual  fault  of  false  doctrine  and  false  practice. 

Bishop  S.  M.  Merrill,  D.D.,  in  his  '"New  Testa- 
ment Idea  of  Hell  "  says: 

'*  The  best  way  to  learn  the  opinions  of  a  peo- 
ple at  a  given  time  in  their  history,  is  to  study 
their  literature  at  the  period  in  question.  *  *  *  * 
The  Targums  are  perhaps  the  most  authoritative 
expositions  of  Jewish  faith,  as  it  was  when  Christ 
was  on  earth,  now  within  our  reach.  These 
afford  unmistakable  evidence  that  eternal  pun- 
ishment was  taught  and  believed  by  the  Jewish 
people.  *  *  *  *  They  contain  the  thought  of 
the  leaders  of  the  people  as  taught  in  the  syna- 
gogues, and  unquestionably  reveal  the  prevalent 
opinions  of  the  Jews  at  the  time  of  Christ  and 
prior  to  his  day." 

Dr.  Wit  1  »y  says:  ' *  It  seems  reasonable  to  inter- 
pret them  (words  rendered  Hell)  according  to  the 
received  opinions  of  the  Jews,  since  otherwise 
our  Lord  using  them  so  frequently  in  speaking 
to  them,  without  saying  anything  to  show  that 
He  did  not  understand  the  expression  as  they  did, 
must   have  strengthened   them   in   their    error. 


106 

^NTow  it  is  certain  that  Gehenna  (Hell)  was  still 
looked  on  as  a  place  in  which  the  wicked  were  to 
be  tormented  by  fire.  So  the  Jerusalem  Targum 
•on  Gen.  15:17,  represents  it  as  sparkling  and 
flaming  with  fire,  into  which  the  wicked  fall. 
And  the  Targum  upon  Eccl.  9:15,  speaks  of  the 
fire  of  Hell;  and  chapter  8:10,  of  the  wicked  who 
.shall  go  to  be  burned  in  Hell. " 

Dr.  Adam  Clark  tells  us  in  his  comment  on 
Isa.  33:14,  "The  Targum  on  this  verse  is  worthy 
of  notice:  '  The  sinners  in  Zion  are  broken 
down;  fear  hath  seized  the  ungodly,  who  are  suf- 
fering from  their  ways.  They  say,  Who  among 
us  shall  dwell  in  Zion,  where  the  splendor  of  the 
Divine  Majesty  is  like  a  consuming  fire?  Who 
of  us  shall  dwell  in  Jerusalem,  where  the  ungodly 
.are  judged  and  delivered  into  hell  for  an  eternal 
burning?'" 

Reimensnyder  says:  "  It  is  still  perfectly  clear 
that  The  Talmud  enjoins  eternal  punishment. 
There  are  a  number  of  passages  which  affirm  it 
.so  definitely  that  even  many  of  its  opponents  are 
•constrained  to  admit  that  they  cannot  be  ex- 
plained away,  (p.  155.) 

We  will  give  a  few  extracts  from  The  Talmud 
w-hich  can  be  taken  in  no  other  sense  but  as  sup- 
porting the  doctrine  of  endless  torment.  Thus  it 
will  be  seen  to  be  a  tenet  known  and  taught  by 
the  Jews. 


107 

Rosh  Hasshanah,  (ch.  1,  p.  17.)  says:  "Chris- 
tians and  apostates  descend  into  Gehenna,  and 
are  judged  therein  for  generations  after  genera- 
tions." 

"All  who  go  down  into  Gehenna  rise  up  again, 
with  the  exception  of  those  who  go  down  and 
do  not  rise,  the  adulterer. "     Babia  Mezia,  page  58. 

"  Let  Reuben  live  in  life  eternal,  and  not  die  the 
•second  death. "   Targumof  Onkelos  on  Deut,  33:0. 

"  Let  Reuben  not  die  a  second  death,  which 
the  wicked  die  in  the  world  to  come."  Jerusa- 
lem Targum  on  Isa.  30 :G. 

"  I  will  not  give  them  an  end  in  this  life,  but 
will  recompense  them  with  vengeance  for  their 
;sins,  and  deliver  their  bodies  to  the  second 
death."     Jerusalem  Targum  on  Isa.  55:6: 

"Who  among  us  shall  dwell  in  Jerusalem, 
where  the  ungodly  will  be  judged,  and  will  be 
delivered  into  Gehenna,  into  everlasting  fire." 
Chaldee  Targum  (Jonathan  Ben  Uzziel)  on  Isa. 
33:14. 

"  The  wicked,  who  deny  the  existence  of  God, 
the  divinity  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and  the  resur- 
rection, have  no  portion  in  the  world  to  come." 
Gemara  Sanhedrim  c.  11. 

"  Man  should  always  endeavor  to  do  good,  but 
should  an  inducement  be  afforded  him  by  the 
commital  of  sin,  let  him  counterbalance  the 
transient  pleasure  which  iniquity  may  afford  by 


108 

reflecting  on  the  unremitting  punishment  which 
it  is  sure  to  entail  on  him  hereafter."  Gemara. 
Erubin. 

"Those  that  die  are  to  rise  again;  those  that 
rise  again  are  to  be  judged.  Know  also  that 
everything  is  to  be  accounted  for;  let  not,  then, 
thine  evil  lusts  persuade  thee  that  the  grave  is  a 
place  of  refuge  for  thee." — Aboth  4:22. 

"  From  this  verse,"  (Isa.  00:2-1)  says  Ibn  Ezra 
(Com.  pg.  806.)  "All  the  learned  gather  that 
there  will  be  a  day  of  judgment.  Neither  shall 
their  lire  be  quenched.  Many  discover  herein 
allusion  to  the  fact,  that  the  soul,  when  it  leaves 
the  body,  remains  within  the  sphere  of  fire,  if  it 
does  not  deserve  to  join  the  angels  of  the  Lord. 
The  ancients  said  that  this  would  take  place  after 
the  resurrection,  and  supported  this  opinion  by  a 
reference  to  Dan  12:2,  who  asserts  that  all  the 
wicked,  when  called  to  life  again,  will  be  to  an 
EVERLASTING  ABHORRING.  All  this  is 
quite  true." 

In  keeping  with  the  above  is  the  testimony  of 
the  writings  of  Chief  Rabbi  Weill.  Rabbis 
Saadja,  Bar  Nachman,  Alio,  et  al. 

Also  Rabbi  Mendez  says :  "The  Gemara  Emek 
Hammelech.  cited  by  Farrar  as  teaching  future 
restoration,  teaches  nothing  of  the  kind,  but  only 
means  that  they  (wicked)  will  be  brought  to- 
the  throne   of   God    by   Messiah    for    the  final 


L09 

judgment,  when  the  irrevocable  verdict  shall  be 
pronounced  against  them  by  God." 
Josephus  informs  us  thai  the  Pharisees  were, 

-as  an  entire  religious  order,  believers  in  future 
punishment.  "They  say  that  all  souls  are  im- 
mortal :  but  that  the  souls  of  good  men  are  only 
removed  into  other  bodies. — but  that  the  souls  of 
bad  men  are  subject  to  eternal  punishment." 

"  They  also  believe  that  souls  have  an  immortal 
vigor  in  them,  and  that  under  the  earth  there 
will  be  rewards  or  punishments,  according  as 
they  have  lived  virtuously  or  viciously  in  this 
life  ;  and  the  latter  are  to  be  detained  in  an  ever- 
lasting prison."     (Wars  II.  ch.  8,  14). 

In  Josephus'  discourse  to  the  Greeks  concern- 
ing Hades,  he  gives  an  account  of  the  Jewish 
belief  concerning  future  punishment.  He  uses 
such  expressions  as  "a  lake  of  unquenchable 
fire"  and  "everlasting  punishment."  He  states 
that  Minos  and  Rhadamanthus  will  not  be  the 
Judges  at  the  last  day.  but  that  the  One  whom 
God  hath  appointed  "hath  prepared  a  just  sen- 
tence for  every  one,  according  to  his  works  :  at 
whose  judgment  seat  where  all  men,  and  angels, 
•and  daemons  shall  stand,  they  will  send  forth 
one  voice  and  say.  Just  is  thy  judgment;  the 
rejoinder  to  which  will  bring  a  just  sentence  upon 
both  parties,  by  giving  justly  to  those  that  have 
done  well   an  everlasting  fruition,  but   allotting 


110 

to  the  lovers  of  wicked  works  eternal  punish- 
ment." 

He  adds  also  that  "to  these  belong  the  un- 
quenchable fire,  and  that  without  end,  and  a 
certain  fiery  worm  never  dying." 

The  opinions  entertained  by  the  Pharisees  at 
the  time  of  Christ,  and  earlier,  indicate  a  strong* 
tendency  toward  the  belief  of  endless  doom. 

Nor  are  the  opposers  of  this  tenet  able  to  ef- 
fectually evade,  or  obscure  this  fact. 

Writers  of  every  shade  of  moral  and  mental 
acumen  are  forced  to  this  concession. 

If  it  were  tiTie  that  the  Jews  believed  in  end- 
less punishment,  then  is  not  only  the  theology  of 
the  "  wider  hope"  imperiled,  but  the  candor  and 
sincerity  of  the  Incarnate  Theos  is  impugned. 

One  under  the  influence  of  the  Master  Mind 
exclaimed  in  fitting  encomium  "  Master,  we  know 
that  thou  art  a  teacher  sent  from  God." 

That  Christ  reproved  and  corrected  the  errors 
of  the  Jews  is  a  fact.  He  drew  the  fine  line  of 
distinctions  that  aroused  the  Pharisaical  ire,  and 
brought  against  himself  their  scorn  and  antipa- 
thy. And  more  particularly  would  He  have 
forfeited  His  claim  to  the  truth  had  He  allowed 
His  hearers  to  glean  from  His  statements,  or 
silence,  impressions  that  but  too  certainly  con- 
firmed them  in  their  heresies. 

We  assert,  therefore,   the  burden  of  negation 


Ill 

resting  upon  the  opposition,  that  when  Jesus; 
used  terms  and  words  with  which  His  Jewish 
audience  was  familiar,  as  implying  eternal 
punishment,  He  not  only  informed  them  of  His. 
doctrine,  but  confirmed  a  doctrine  already 
believed  and  taught. 

And  that  the  Jewish  mind  had  received   thi& 
doctrine,  its  enemies  shall  witness. 

E.  H.  Plumptre,  D.  D.,  in  his  eschatological 
work  entitled  **  Spirits  in  Prison"  in  a  quotation 
from  Dr.  Farrar,  (who  is  also  devoted  to  the 
"  wider  hope")?  makes  the  Rosh  Hasshanah 
say:  "But  heretics  (probably,  i.e.,  Christians) 
and  informers  and  Epicureans,  who  have  denied 
the  law,  or  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  or  who 
have  separated  from  the  customs  of  the  congre- 
gation, or  who  have  caused  their  fear  in  the  land 
of  the  living,  who  have  sinned,  or  caused  many 
to  sin,  as  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  all  such  go 
down  to  hell  and  are  judged  forever."  (Also 
McCaul,  Old  Paths,  p.  410). 

Also,  the  third  deduction  from  Talmudic  pas- 
sages Dr.  Plumptre  quotes,  is'*'  that  the  incurably 
evil  were  punished  for  a  period  which  was 
described  by  a  phrase  that  was  popularly,  if  not 
strictly,  synonymous  with  "  everlasting." 

To  prove  that  the  eternity  of  future  punish- 
ment was  the  opinion  of  the  learned  religious 
classes,  I  can  do  no  better  than  to  quote  Johanan 


112 

"ben  Zaccai.  In  answer  to  the  question  from  his 
friends — "  Whence  these  tears  ?"  He  says:  "  If 
I  were  going  to  appear  before  a  king  of  flesh  and 
b)lood,  he  is  one  who  to-day  is  and  to-morrow  is 
in  the  grave;  if  he  were  wroth  with  me,  his 
wrath  is  not  eternal;  if  he  were  to  cast  me  into 
'chains,  those  chains  are  not  forever;  if  he  slay 
me,  that  death  is  not  eternal.  I  might  soothe 
liim  with  words  or  appease  him  with  a  gift.  But 
they  are  about  to  bring  me  before  the  King  of 
kings,  the  Lord,  the  Holy  and  Blessed  One,  who 
liveth  and  abideth  forever. 

i  'And  if  He  is  wroth  with  me.  His  wrath  is 
eternal;  and  if  He  bind.  His  bonds  are  eternal; 
if  He  slay,  it  is  eternal  death;  and  Him  I  cannot 
soothe  with  words  or  appease  with  gifts.  And 
beside  all  this  there  are  before  me  two  paths,  one 
to  Paradise  and  the  other  to  Gehenna,  and  I 
know  not  in  which  they  are  about  to  lead  me. 
"'How  can  I  do  aught  else  but  weep  ?"  Bera- 
coth,  fol.  82.  Dr.  Plumptre's  comment  is  signifi- 
cant, and  coming  from  him  is  a  concession  of 
some  importance.  He  says:  "  Whatever  ques- 
tions may  be  raised  as  to  the  precise  force  of  the 
Hebrew  words  here  translated  '  eternal,'  the 
whole  tone  of  the  passage  seems  to  me  to  confirm 
Dr.  Edersheim's  conclusions,  that  the  dying  man 
w^ho  thus  spoke  was  contemplating,  as  possible,  a 
punishment  to  which  he  saw  no  end. 


113 

He  v.  N.  D.  George  ("  Univ.  not  of  the  Bible" 
p.  384)  has  the  following  question  and  answer: 
"  Was  the  belief  of  endless  punishment  common 
~both  among  Jews  and  Gentiles  in  our  Saviour's 
time  r 

Universalists  shall  speak  for  themselves,  as 
their  testimony  will  not  be  doubted  upon  this 
point. 

"  The  Pharisees,  it  is  well  known,  believed  in 
the  endless  punishment  of  human  souls."  Lec- 
tures by  W.  H.  Fernald,  p.   79. 

"  It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  Jews,  in  our 
Saviours  day,  maintained  the  Pagan  notion  of 
immortal  happiness  for  the  righteous,  and 
undying  pain  for  the  sinner.''  Letter  in  the 
"Trumpet"  of  Feb.  3,  1838,  by  W.  C.  Hanscom, 
a  Universalist  minister. 

"  That  the  Pharisees  believed  in  a  punishment 
after  death,  we  do  not  deny."  Wittemore's 
Notes  on  the  Parables,  p.  62. 

"  Jews  and  heathens  believed  in  endless  pun- 
ishment."   Balfour's  Essays,  p.  326. 

Mr.  Balfour,  in  his  "  Inquiry,"  p.  200.  Where 
he  attempts  to  show  that  the  Jews  obtained  their 
views  of  endless  punishment  from  the  heathen, 
says:  'The  introduction  of  this  and  other 
lieathen  opinions  among  the  Jews  was  gradual, 
but  in  the  days  of  our  Lord  had  become  general, 
with  perhaps  the  exception   of   the  sect   of  the 


114 

Sadducees/     This  sect  composed  but  a  small  part 
of  the  Jewish  nation." 

If  we  were  to  allow  future  punishment  to  be 
settled  by  reference  to  the  Jewish  opinion,  and 
eternized  by  their  prevailing  testimony,  we 
should  feel  but  little  hesitancy  in  pronouncing 
the  verdict,  at  this  premature  stage  of  the  discus- 
sion, we  know  of  nothing  that  seriously  lies 
against  the  proof  thus  deduced. 

We  do  not  conceive  that  the  Jewish  belief  is 
so  arbitrarily  or  necessarily  connected  with  this 
question  as  to  force  us  to  depend  upon  it,  or  sur- 
render our  position.  While  the  doctrine  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  is  found  to  be  consonant  with  Jewish 
predilection,  yet  He  so  forcibly  put  His  position 
that  one  opposed  to  the  theory  of  endless  doom 
could  hardly  refuse  to  admit  that  His  teachings; 
do  not  reconcile  themselves  readily  with  modern 
liberalists.  The  plain  bearing  of  Christ's  state- 
ments are  in  favor  of  eternal  retribution.  To 
dispose  of  these  statements  demands  too  large  an 
amount  of  circumlocution  and  special  pleading  to 
satisfy  one  who  is  given  to  scepticism. 

Hence  we  assume  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
(if  He  be  the  founder  of  the  "  wider  hope")  must 
have  despaired  correcting  the  Jewish  opinions, 
on  this  question,  with  words  and  terms  that 
would  too  surely  confirm  and  strengthen  a  pre- 
vious bias. 


115 

We  should  not  even  feel  called  upon  to  prove 
that  Christ  taught  any  sort  of  retribution.  Suf- 
ficient for  an  argumenl  would  be  the  fact  that  it 
is  universally  acknowledged  that  He  did  not 
unteach  it. 

This,  with  the  facts  of  Jewish  belief  arrayed 
before  the  reader,  we  claim  is  an  argument  well 
nigh  invulnerable. 

The  amount  of  testimony,  as  to  the  Jewish 
belief,  could  be  greatly  augmented  by  reference 
to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  We  purposely  avoid 
recourse  to  this  line  of  evidence,  since  its  intro- 
duction under  this  statement  of  Jewish  belief 
from  extrinsic  sources,  might  be  regarded  as  a 
••  j)'  fit i<>  principi." 

Assuredly,  if  the  belief  of  the  Jews  can  be 
reconciled  with  any  theory  antagonistic  to  the 
orthodox,  then  their  Scriptures  of  necessity,. 
must  reconcile  themselves  with  that  opinion. 
We  reserve  a  reference  to  their  Scriptures  for  an 
argument,  to  be  drawn  in  a  following  chapter, 
from  the  Bible. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PHASES   OF   UNORTHODOX    BELIEFS. 

SjT  HE  most  satisfactory  source  of  information, 
^■/  as  to  the  belief  of  Christendom,  on  the  ques- 
tion of  future  punishment,  is  found  in  records  of  the 
councils,  synods,  testimonies,  and  individual 
opinions  of  representative  men.  These  sources 
-of  information  cover  the  most  of  the  time  from 
the  first  century  to  the  present.  This  mass  of  in- 
formation is  divided  between  two  general  classes: 
-those  for  and  those  against  the  orthodox  opinion. 
That  is,  those  who  believe  in  future  eternal 
^conscious  suffering  and  those  who  do  not. 

Among  those  who  do  not  hold  to  the  orthodox 
faith  are  those  who  are  devoted  to  the  apocatas- 
tasis,  but  are  not  to  be  mentioned  as  having  any 
.considerable  bearing  on  this  question,  on  account 
•of  the  extreme  'minority  of  their  adherents. 
>Clement  and  Origen  may  be  mentioned  as  de- 
voted to  the  doctrine  of  restitution  in  the  first 
patristic  period  (A.  D.  200-300),  but  they  were 
regarded  by  the  other  fathers  as  heretical  in  their 
opinions.     And   yet  even  Origen   was  not  con- 


n; 

stantly  devoted  to  a. final  restitution.     He  is  re- 
sponsible for  saying: 

"Every  soul  going  out  of  this  world  shall 
either  enjoy  the  inheritance  of  lit'*'  and  bliss,  if 
his  deeds  have  rendered  him  lit  for  bliss;  or,  be 
delivered  up  to  eternal  fire  and  punishment- 
(ignt  ceti  mo  ac  suppliclis—GT.  ";';"w).  if  his  sins 
have  deserved  that  state." 

Dr.  Schaff  says  "  that  he  can  by  no  means  be 
called  orthodox  either  in  the  Catholic  or  Protes- 
tant sense.'" 

F.  D.  Maurice.  Canon  Farrar.  and  Dr.  E.  H. 
Plumptre  are  also  modern  advocates  of  the  the- 
ory of  restitution.  "  In  the  conservative  church 
of  England,  in  the  year  1853,  Prof.  Maurice  hav- 
ing publicly  renounced  his  belief  in  this  doctrine 
(future  punishment),  was  expelled  from  the 
chair  of  Divinity  in  King's  College,  London/" 
These  modern  advocates  of  final  restitution  are 
not  regarded  as  giving  any  material  coloring  to 
the  shade  of  orthodoxy ;  but  are  looked  upon  as 
novel  and  heretical  by  the  universal  church. 

Universalists  might  be  mentioned. in  this  con- 
nection, although  they  differ  among  themselves: 
some  holding  Restitution  and  others  Annihila- 
tion. 

There  are  also  those  who  flatly  contradict  the 
orthodox  opinion  as  did  Theodore  Parker  when 
he  said  that  he  ••believed  that  Jesus  Christ  meant 


118 

to  teach  eternal  punishment,  but  lie  would  not 
accept  it  upon  his  authority." 

All  statements  of  this  character  disclose  the 
"  cloven  foot,"  and  are  not  used  to  any  extent  as 
argument. 

Those  who  do  accept  the  doctrine  of  future 
punishment,  and  accept,  as  expressing  the  proper 
opinion  on  the  subject,  Matthew  25:46,  "And 
these  shall  go  away  into  everlasting  (alimag—  aionios) 
punishment:  but  the  righteous  into  life  eternal 
(aiwwof— aionios),"  are  also  divided,  not  as  to  fact, 
but  as  to  the  mode  and  ultimate  of  the  fact. 

Those  who  receive  the  dogma  of  eternal  pun- 
ishment, and  yet  depart  from  the  established 
orthodox  position,  hold  that  eternal  punishment 
is  extinction  of  being,  and  is  variously  expressed 
by  such  scriptural  terms  as  "  cut  off,"  "  the  end 
of  the  wicked,"  "destroy,"  "  perish,"  etc.  They 
claim  to  have  discovered,  practically,  a  difference 
between  eternal  punishment  as  the  wages  of  sin, 
and  conscious  eternal  misery.  In  other  words 
they  are  Annihilationists.  That  such  an  opinion 
finds  support  from  writers  of  liberal  ability 
could  hardly  be  conjectured.  The  very  idea  of 
punishment  involves  the  necessity  of  conscious- 
ness. Unconscious  punishment  is  unthinkable 
and  unscriptural. 

Lastly,  there  are  those  who  hold  to  the  or- 
thodox doctrine   combated  by   Annihilationists, 


119 

Apocatastasists,  Rationalists  and  Unbelievers, 
andare  devoted  to  the  doctrine  of  future,  eter- 
nal, conscious  misery, — as  the  doom  of  the  finally 
impenitent. 

That  this  doctrine  is  safely  intrenched  in  the 
minds  of  men,  will  be  evident  by  direct  quota- 
tions from  the  cyclopean  mass  of  literature  upon 
this  question:  representing  a  wide  scope  of  mental 
and  moral  attainment. 

We  purposely  quote  from  those  who  are  well 
defined  upon  the  orthodox  theory.  Their  names 
will  give  character  to  their  opinions. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

EARLY    BELIEF   OF    THE   CHRISTIAN   CHURCH. 

->. 

I  AKEN  together  with  all  the  cumulative 
force  of  other  evidence,  we  regard  the  con- 
sonant voice  of  the  Christian  Church  as  argu- 
mentative in  sustaining  the  orthodox  opinion. 

The  end  for  which  we  take  recourse  to  this 
line  of  evidence  is  to  establish  the  fact  that  the 
Christian  world,  as  such,  believed  and  taught  a 
retribution  of  an  endless  conscious  nature. 

The  argument  under  the  surface  of  the  facts, 
to  be  produced  is  authoritative.  The  following 
criterion  is  applicable  to  the  doctrine  under 
scrutiny,  viz:  that  it  "  has  been  received  and  be- 
lieved semper,  ubique,  et  ab  omnibus  (always,, 
everywhere,  and  by  all. )"  Not  many  heresies  can 
run  the  gauntlet  of  such  a  test.  ''And  that  no 
one  may  say  what  is  said  by  those  who  are 
deemed  philosophers,  that  our  assertions  that  the 
wicked  are  punished  in  eternal  fire  are  big  words 
and  bugbears,  and  that  we  wish  men  to  live  vir- 
tuously through  fear,  and  not  because  such  a  life 
is  good  and  pleasant." 

"And  Plato  in  like  manner  used  to  say  that 


121 

Rhadamanthus  and  Minos  would  punish  the- 
wicked  who  came  before  them:  and  we  say  that 
the  same  will  be  done,  but  at  the  hand  of  Christ, 
and  upon  the  wicked  in  the  same  bodies  united 
agaiu  to  their  spirits,  which  are  now  to  undergo 
everlasting  punishment:  and  not  only,  as  Plato 
said,  for  a  period  of  a  thousand  years."  Apolo- 
gia, 1:8  and  2:0. 

Justin  Trypho  says:  "Thus  some  which  have 
appeared  worthy  of  God  never  die;  but  others  are 
punished  so  long  as  God  wTills  them  to  exist  and 
to  be  punished." 

Justin  says:  "  But  since  God  in  the  beginning 
made  the  race  of  angels  and  men  with  free-wall, 
they  will  justly  suffer  in  eternal  fire  the  punish- 
ment of  whatever  sins  they  have  committed." 
Apol.  2:7. 

Trypho:  "  But  we  will  not  receive  it  of  all 
your  nation  (Gentiles)  since  wTe  know  from 
Isaiah  (06:24)  that  the  numbers  of  those  who 
have  transgressed  shall  be  consumed  by  the 
worm  and  unquenchable  fire,  remaining  immor- 
tal; so  that  they  become  a  spectacle  to  all  flesh." 
ch.  130. 

Justin:  ,;  And  that  he  (Satan)  would  be  sent 
into  the  fire  with  his  host,  and  the  men  wTho  fol- 
low him,  and  would  be  punished  for  an  endless 
duration,  Christ  foretold."    Apol.  1:28. 

That  Irenaeus  favored  the  doctrine  of  annihila- 


122 

tion  is  taught  by  some;  but  the  following  extract 
completely  overthrows  such  an  opinion: 

"  Inasmuch  then  as  in  both  Testaments  there 
is  the  same  righteousness  of  God  (displayed) 
when  God  takes  vengeance,  in  the  one  case  in- 
deed typically,  temporarily,  and  more  moder- 
ately; but  in  the  other  really,  enduringly,  and 
more  rigidly:  for  the  fire  is  eternal  and  the  wrath 
of  God  which  shall  be  revealed  from  heaven 
from  the  face  of  our  Lord  entails  a  heavier  pun- 
ishment on  those  who  incur  it.  ******  And 
to  as  many  as  continue  their  love  towards  God, 
does  he  grant  communion  with  him.  ***** 
But  on  as  many  as  according  to  their  own  choice 
depart  from  God,  he  inflicts  that  separation  from 
himself  which  they  have  chosen  of  their  own  ac- 
cord. *******  Those,  therefore,  who  cast 
away  by  apostasy  these  forementioned  things, 
being  in  fact  destitute  of  all  good,  do  experience 
every  kind  of  punishment.  God  however  does 
not  punish  them  immediately  of  himself,  but 
that  punishment  falls  upon  them  because  they 
are  destitute  of  all  that  is  good.  Now  good 
things  are  eternal  and  without  end  with  God, 
and  therefore  the  loss  of  these  is  also  eternal  and 
never  ending.  *****  And  the  same  thing 
does  the  Lord  also  say  in  the  gospel  to  those  who 
are  found  upon  the  left  hand :  ' '  Depart  from  me, 
ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  which  my  father 


123 

has  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels," 
(Matt.  25:41)  indicating  that  eternal  fire  was  not 
originally  prepared  for  man.  but  for  him  who 
beguiled  man  and  caused  him  to  offend.*' 
Adv-Hser,,  4.  28,  1.— 5.  27.  2.—:].  23.  3. 

( )n  the  nature  of  penal  fires  Minucius  Felix 
A.  D.  300,  gives  the  following:  "  There  (in  hell) 
the  intelligent  fire  burns  the  limbs  and  restores 
them,  feeds  on  them  and  nourishes  them:  *  *  * 
*  *  so  that  penal  fire  is  not  fed  by  the  waste  of 
those  who  burn,  but  is  nourished  by  the  unex- 
hausted eating  away  of  their  bodies.  But  that 
t  hey  who  know  not  God  are  deservedly  tormented 
as  impious,  as  unrighteous  persons,  no  one, 
except  a  profane  man,  hesitates  to  believe,  since 
it  is  no  less  wicked  to  be  ignorant  of  than  to 
•offend  the  Parent  of  all.  and  the  Lord  of  all." 
Octavius,  35. 

Tertullian  (A.  D.  1 50-21 G)  gives  expression  to 
a  crude  and  morbid  delight  which  he  fancied 
would  characterize  the  saved,  when  he  said:  "  At 
that  greatest  of  all  spectacles,  the  last  and  eternal 
judgment,  how  shall  I  admire,  how  laugh,  how 
rejoice,  how  exult,  when  I  behold  so  many  proud 
uionarchs  groaning  in  the  lowest  abyss  of  dark- 
ness; so  many  magistrates  liquefying  in  fiercer 
flames  than  they  ever  kindled  against  the  Chris- 
tians; so  many  sage  philosophers  blushing  in 
red-hot  fires  with  their  deluded  pupils;  so  many 


124 

tragedians  more  tuneful  in  the  expression  of 
their  own  sufferings;  so  many  dancers  tripping 
more  nimbly  from  anguish  than  ever  before  from 
applause."     De  Spectaculis,  30. 

"  Souls  with  their  bodies  will  be  reserved  in. 
infinite  tortures  for  suffering.  Thus  tiie  men 
will  forever  be  seen  by  us  who  here  gazed  upon 
us  for  a  season;  and  the  short  joy  of  those  cruel 
eyes  in  the  persecutions  that  they  made  for  us 
will  be  compensated  by  a  perpetual  spectacle, 
according  to  the  truth  of  Holy  Scripture  which 
says,  "  Their  worm  shall  not  die,  and  their  fire 
shall  not  be  quenched  and  they  shall  be  for  a 
vision  to  all  flesh. v  "  The  pain  of  punishment 
will  then  be  without  the  fruit  of  penitence:  weep- 
ing will  be  useless,  and  prayer  ineffectual.  Too 
late  they  will  believe  in  eternal  punishment/7" 
Cyprian,  A.  D.  '200-258;  Lactantius  (A.  D.  312) 
says  with  precision  and  exactness  what  can  be 
reconciled  with  nothing  else  than  the  orthodox 
theory.  Hear  him  speak:  ''If  the  soul,  which 
has  its  origin  from  God,  gains  the  mastery,  it  is 
immortal,  and  lives  in  perpetual  light:  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  body  shall  overpower  the  soul 
and  subject  it  to  its  dominion,  it  is  in  everlastings 
darkness  and  death.  And  the  force  of  this  is 
not  that  it  altogether  annihilates  the  souls  of  the 
unrighteous,  but  subjects  them  to  everlasting 
punishment.     We    term    that    punishment   the^ 


125 

second  death,  which  is  itself  also  perpetual,  as 
.also  is  immortality.  ******  We  thus  de- 
fine the  second  death;  Death  is  the  suffering  of 
eternal  pain:  or  thus:  Death  is  the  condemnation 
of  souls  for  their  deserts  to  eternal  punishments." 
Instit.  2:13. 

(The  foregoing  extracts  are  from  Theodore  D. 
Bacon,  under  the  supervision  of  Prof.  T.  P. 
Fisher,  of  Yale  University). 

Barnabas,  the  companion  and  fellow  laborer  of 
St.  Paul,  and  frequently  mentioned  in  the  Acts, 
in  «»ne  of  his  Epistles  says:  "  But  the  way  of 
darkness  is  also  the  way  of  everlasting  death 
{QnvciTov  ahtviv)  with  punishment,  in  which  way  are 
things  that  destroy  the  soul."     (Ch.  20). 

Clement  of  Rome,  who  was  of  note  among  the 
•Christian  writers  of  the  first  century  and  a  friend 
of  St.  Paul  and  the  Apostle  Peter,  says  :  "  But 
.after  that  we  have  departed  from  the  world,  we 
shall  no  longer  be  able  there  to  confess  or  to  ex- 
ercise repentance  (ovketi  iSvvnuada    hicei    ^ouo'/oyijacKrdai  ?]■ 

ueravoeiv),"  (ch.  8).  Also  he  says  :  "  For  if  we  do 
the  will  of  Christ,  we  shall  find  rest,  otherwise 
nothing  shall  deliver  us  from  eternal  punishment 

•(aiuviov  KoXdaeag)     (ell.  6). 

Ignatius,  Bishop  of  A  ntioch,  and  committed  to 
the  lions  in  the  amphitheatre  at  Rome,  by  order 
•of  Trajan,  A.  D.,  107,  says  in  one  of  his  Epistles: 
f  If  any  one  corrupt  the  faith  of  God  by  impure 


126 

doctrine,  such  an  one  shall  go  into  inextinguish- 
able fire  (ek  to  Trvpaa fieorov)." 

The  Pastor  of  Hernias  was  a  book  of  great 
repute  about  100  or  150  A.  D.,  and  was  thought 
by  Irenaeus  and  Origen  to  be  quite  equal  with 
the  Scriptures.  The  Pastor,  bk.  III.  Similitude 
IV.  reads  :  "  That  future  era  shall  be  summer 
to  the  just,  but  desolation  to  the  transgressor. 
And  they  shall  be  burned  therefore,  because  they 
have  sinned,  and  did  not  choose  repentance  of 
their  sins  (comburentur,  quia  *  *  *  peccatarum 
suorum  non  egerunt  poenitentiam).,, 

Similitude  YI.  ch.  11,  says  :  "Those  which  you 
see  have  torn  themselves  away  from  God  forever 
(in  perpetuum).  Among  them  there  is  no  return 
through  repentance."  Similitude  VIII.  ch.  7, 
says  :  "  And  as  many  as  do  not  repent  at  all, 
but  abide  in  their  deed,  will  utterly  perish." 

The  Ante-Xicene  Fathers,  from  100  A.  D.  to 
the  time  of  the  Council  of  Xice,  A.  D  325,  or, 
embracing  with  the  Apostolic  Fathers  the  whole 
of  the  first  Patristic  period,  make  mention  of 
eternal  punishment  in  most  decisive  terms. 

Polycarp,  one  of  the  greatest  of  early  bishops,, 
and  the  one  whom  St.  John  addresses  in  the 
Apocalypse  as  the  "Angel  of  the  church  at 
Smyrna:"  who  was  contemporary  with  St.  John, 
and  suffered  martyrdom  in  166  A.  D.,  is  well 
worthy   a   place   and  hearing  on  this   question. 


127 

When  answering  the  proconsul  of  Asia  in  his 
threat,  says:  "I  fear  not  the  fire  you  threaten 
me  with,  which  burns  for  a  little  while,  and  then 
goes  out;  you  are  yourself  ignorant  of  the  judg- 
ment to  come,  and  the  fire  of  everlasting  punish- 
ment (alavtov  KoTidaeug ) ff 

Tatian,  an  acquaintance  of  Justin  Martyr,  who 
died  about  170  A.  D.,  said:  "  If,  indeed,  it  (the 
soul)  knows  not  the  truth,  it  dies  and  is  dissolved 
with  the  body,  but  rises  again  at  last,  at  the  end 
of  the  world  with  the  body,  receiving  death  by 
punishment  in  immortality. "  ch.  13.  In  ch. 
14.,  he  says:  "  So  the  demons  who  abuse  the 
present  life  to  purposes  of  wrong  doing,  dying 
continually  even  while  they  live,  will  have  here- 
after the  same  immortality." 

Chap.  17.,  has  the  following,  "But  as  he 
who  gave  the  name  to  the  city,  a  friend  of  Her- 
cules, it  is  said,  was  devoured  by  the  horse  of 
Diomedes,  so  he  wTho  boasted  as  the  Magian 
Ostanes,  wTill  be  delivered  up  in  the  day  of  con- 
summation as  fuel  for  the  eternal  fire." 

Theophilus,  who  died  in  about  A.  D.,  180  or 
188.  is  reported  as  saying  to  Antolycus:  "So 
now  do  thou  believe,  my  friend,  so  that  thou 
mayest  not  at  last  be  compelled  to  believe  amid 
everlasting  torments  (h  dloviog Tropicus)." 

Twentieth  Book  to  Antolycus:  "Yet  read 
thou  the  prophets  themselves,   they   can  teach 


128 

thee  how  thou  canst  avoid  the  everlasting  pain." 
Tertullian,  (A.  D.  166-240)  says  in  De  judic. 
Dom.,  (concerning  the  judgment  of  the  Lord), 
-ch.  9:  "God  appoints  the  wicked  to  go  down 
to  everlasting  punishment  (ceternce  poence)  under 
the  fierceness  of  a  raging  hell-fire  without  end. 
*****  The  damned  burn  eternally  without 
^consuming,  as  the  volcanoes  burn  forever  with- 
out wasting." 

Hippolytus,  Bishop  of  Port  of  Rome,  A.  D. 
235,  says:  "  The  fire  which  is  unquenchable  and 
without  end  awaits  these  latter,  and  a  certain 
fiery  worm  which  dieth  not."  (Dis.  against 
Greeks). 

Cyril,  315—386  A.  D.,  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem, 
says:  "  If  he  be  a  sinner,  he  will  receive  an 
eternal  (externum)  body,  whereby  he  may  be  able 
to  suffer  the  punishment  of  sins,  that  he  may 
perpetually  (perpetua)  burn  in  fire,  so  that  it 
.never  will  be  dissolved."     Catech.  c.  18. 


CHAPTER  V. 

TESTIMONY    OF    LATER   PATRISTIC   AND    SCHOLAS- 
TIC  WRITERS. 


f/ff HE  Second  Patristic  Period.  (A.  D.  300-609) 
'^r  has  many  witnesses  to  the  doctrine  of  future 
endless  punishment. 

Gregory  of  Nazianzen  writes:  "For  those 
who  have  departed  from  this  life  there  will  no 
more  be  in  hell  confession  or  amendment  of  ways 
(non  est  in  inferno  hie  morum  correct  io"). 

He  says  also  that  he  knew  "  of  a  purifying  fire 
which  Christ  has  come  to  kindle  on  earth;  this 
fire  has  the  power  to  eradicate  matter  and  all  evil 
propensities,  *  *  *  *  *  I  know  also  of  a  fire 
which  does  not  purify  but  punishes,  ***** 
which  is  connected  with  the  worm  that  never 
dies,  and  which  cannot  be  extinguished,  but  per- 
petuates itself  for  evil  doers."     Orat.,  40.,  30. 

Lactantius  also  says:  ''The  same  divine  fire 
therefore,  with  one  and  the  same  force  and 
power,  will  both  burn  the  wicked  and  form  them 
again,  and  will  replace  as  much  as  it  will  con- 


130 

suine  of  their  bodies,  and  will  supply  itself,  with 
eternal  nourishment,  which  the  poets  transferred 
to  the  vulture  of  Tityus.  This  without  any  wast- 
ing of  bodies,  which  regain  their  substance  ;  it. 
will  only  burn  and  effect  them  with  a  sense  of 
pain."  Instit.  7:21  (Clark's  Ante-Nicene  Li- 
brary.) 

Augustine,  (A.  D.  353-430,)  is  so  well  known 
as  favoring  eternal  punishment  that  it  would  be 
unnecessary  to  transcribe  any  amount  of  his 
numerous  arguments.  He  not  only  believed  in 
retribution,  but  logically  and  conclusively  com- 
bated restorationism  and  annihilationism.  His. 
argument  is  quite  fully  given  in  the  "  Unknown 
Country"  pp.  42  to  45.  The  quotations  given- 
there  are  supplied  by  the  translations  published 
by  T.  &  T.  Clark. 

Augustine  is  supposed  by  the  opposition  to- 
have  imbibed  his  ideas  from  the  heathen.  But 
we  are  not  informed  as  to  where  the  heathen  se- 
cured their  ideas.  The  effort  to  impeach  the 
Augustinian  testimony  as  to  future  punishment 
seems  to  be  reducible  to  an  argumentum  ad  ab- 
surdum.  In  whatever  points  he  may  have  de- 
parted from  orthodoxy,  yet  on  this  point  his  voice 
is  consonant  with  the  church  universal.  Criti- 
cism is  a  deadly  weapon  in  some  quarters.  It 
cannot  produce  death  in  the  field  of  polemics.. 
The  argument  of  Augustine  is  conclusive,  and 


131 

represents  not  only  his  ideas,  and  those  of  the 
cause  for  which  he  did  so  much,  but  is  thoroughly 
scriptural  in  its  main  points,  as  to  the  fact  of  a 
future  place  of  eternal  doom.  He  never  is  quoted 
by  the  friends  of  the  "wider  hope." 

Pelagius,  (A.  D.  360-435,)  strenuously  favors 
eternal  punishment,  and  Ambrose  even  goes  so 
far  as  to  declare  unbaptized  infants  are  lost. 

Jerome  says  that  "sceptics"  and  "impious 
ones  and  devils  shall  be  in  eternal  torment" 
Comm.  in  Jtrem.  (50,  ad.  tin.  Chrysostom,  one 
of  the  most  reputable  church  fathers  of  the 
Second  Patristic  period,  cannot  be  misunderstood. 
He  not  only  believed  in  and  taught  eternal  pun- 
ishment (Ad  Theod.  Laps.,  1:10),  but  advises 
meditation  upon  the  subject  as  a  means  to  one's, 
safety,  from  the  pains  of  hell.  (Horn.  31,  ad. 
Rom.). 

The  Second  Patristic  period  yields  more  abun- 
dant evidence  than  we  have  given.  Space  does 
not  admit  of  more  devotion  to  it  than  has  been 
given.  For  a  fuller  view  of  the  position  of  these 
writers,  the  reader  is  referred  to  chapter  I.,  of  the 
"Unknown  Country"  and  chapters  3,  4,  of 
"Doom  Eternal."     ********** 


II. 

The  scholastic  period  (800-1500  A.  D.)  yields 
the  same  general  information  as  the  former 
periods  do. 

The  "  Elueedarium,"  a  work  of  great  authority 
in  its  time,  gives  a  conversation  between  a  Disci- 
pnlus  and  his  Magister.  It  yields  all  the  infor- 
mation orthodoxy  might  desire  on  the  question 
under  discussion. 

Peter  Lombard  also  speaks  to  the  point  in 
question  with  no  uncertainty. 

Thomas  Aquinas,  known  to  all  religious  read- 
fers,  though  laboring  under  some  of  the  crudities 
of  his  Roman  Catholic  bias,  is  nevertheless  posi- 
tive in  his  statement  of  the  orthodox  view,  and  is 
unequivocal  in  his  testimony  as  to  a  place  of 
punishment  for  the  incorrigible  and  impenitent. 

Master  Eckhart,  the  most  eminent  of  the  mys- 
tics of  this  period,  was  so  familiar  with  the 
subject  of  eternal  doom  as  to  give  himself  up  to 
reasonings  on  the  "  philosophy''  of  hell-torment  ! 

Suso,  (A.  D.  1300-1365)  giving  an  illustration 
of  the  eternity  of  future  suffering  says:  "  Give 
us  a  millstone,  say  the  damned,  as  broad  as  the 
whole  earth,  and  so  large  as  to  touch  the  sky  all 


L33 

around,  and  let  a  little  bird  conic  once  in  a  hun- 
dred thousand  years,  and  pick  offa  small  particle 
of  the  stone  not  Larger  than  the  tenth  part  of  a- 
-rain  of  millet,  and  after  another  hundred  thou- 
sand years,  let  him  conic  again,  so  that  in  ten 
hundred  thousand  years  he  would  pick  off  as 
much  as  a  grain  of  millet;  we  wretched  sinners 
would  ask  nothing  but  that  when  this  stone  has 
an  end.  our  pains  might  also  cease;  yet  even  this 
cannot  be." 

Haute  Alighieri,  whose  theology  was  framed 
according  to  Thomas  Aquinas  is  responsible  for 
the  following  inscription,  placed  over  the  portal 
of  Hell:  "  Lasciate  ogni  speranza,  roich  'entrate** 
(Abandon  every  hope,  who  enter  here)  ! 

We  thus  see  that  scholasticism  gives  a  hearty 
support  to  the  orthodox  theory,  and  rebukes 
those  who  are  wise  above  what  is  written,  and 
conflict  with  the  best  minds  and  the  most  tenable 
positions. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

INDIVIDUAL    CREEDS    AND    OPINIONS   OF   SYNODS. 

|'E  WILL  lastly  refer  to  the  creeds  of  Chris- 

pr  tendom.  These  are  divided  into  Indivi- 
dual, (Ecumenical  and  Particular. 

"A  Creed,  or  Rule  of  Faith,  is  a  confession  of 
faith  for  public  use,  or  a  form  of  words  setting 
forth  with  authority  certain  articles  of  belief, 
which  are  regarded  by  the  framers  as  necessary 
for  salvation.  ***********  They  are 
summaries  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible,  aids  to 
its  sound  understanding,  bonds  of  union  among 
their  professors,  public  standards,  and  guards 
against  false  doctrine  and  practice."  SchafFs 
Hist,  of  the  Creeds  of  Christendom.  (Vol.  1,  pp.  3 
and  8.) 

Among  the  Individual  Creeds  might  be  men- 
tioned : 

1.  The  Creed  of  Irenaeus.  Contra  Haereses, 
(lib.  1,  cap.  10,  par.  1.)  Here  the  "angels  who 
apostatized  "  and  "  impious  "  and  "  unjust  "  and 
"  lawless  "  and  "  blasphemers  "  are  consigned  to 
eternal  fire  («c  to  aluviovro  Trip)  while  the  ''righteous" 


135 

•and    "  holy"  inherit   eternal  glory  (M$av  aiuviov). 

2.  The  Creed  of  Justin  Martyr  (An  apologetic 
.statement  of  Christian  doctrine  presented  to  the 
Emperor  Marcus  Aurelius)  says  that  the  wicked 
'"  go  to  everlasting  (**u«o*)  punishment,"  and  it 
uses  also  the  term  "  everlasting  punishment  of 
fire"  to  designate  the  idea  of  hell-torment. 

3.  The  Creed  of  Tertullian  (Ex.  lib.  de  Pres- 
cript adv.  Haeretic,  ch.  13)  speaks  of  the  per- 
petual fire  (igni perpetuo)  for  the  godless. 

4.  The  Creed  of  Origen  (Ex  Proaem.  Op.  ™pi 
<ipXuv)  gives  transgessors  "  over  to  everlasting 
(n'lui'tov)  fire  and  misery." 

5.  The  Creed  of  Basil  the  Great,  (Ex  Ascet. 
de  Fide,  pav.  4)  says  that  "sinners  shall  be  con- 
demned to  everlasting  punishment  (k6?mciv  aioviov)^ 
where  their  worm  dieth  not,  and  their  fire  is  not 
quenched." 

5.  The  author  of  "Doom  Eternal"  says: 
""  Even  the  arch  heretics,  Arius  and  Pelagius  did 
not  venture  to  question  the  prevailing  faith  on 
this  point." 

5.  The  creed  of  Arius  declares  the  finality  of 
the  judgment,  and 

6.  Pelagius  actually  says  that  the  wicked  and 
perverse  will  suffer  in  eternal  fires  (aetermis 
i  <j  nib  us  esse  exurendos)." 

Thus  we  see  the  consensus  of  opinion  in  the  in- 
dividual creeds  proclaims  to  the  world  the  in- 


136 

vulnerable  position  this  doctrine  sustained  at  the* 
time  these  creeds  were  drawn  up. 

The  (Ecumenical  creeds  are  three  in  number. 
They  are,  first,  the  Apostles,  second,  the  Nicene,. 
and  third,  the  Athanasian. 

The  Athanasian  creed  seems  to  be  the  one- 
against  which  the  opponents  of  orthodoxy  hurl 
their  heaviest  missiles.  Luther  claimed  that 
the  Athanasian  Creed  was  "  the  most  important 
and  glorious  composition  since  the  days  of  the- 
Apostles."  And  of  the  same  opinion  were  Dean 
Stanley  and  Hodge. 

It  represents  the  belief  and  teaching  of  its  time- 
(A.  D.  434),  and  is  the  clearest  statement  of  the 
present  orthodox  faith. 

Its  opening  article  declares  that  "Whosoever 
will  be  saved:  before  all  things  it  is  necessary 
that  he  hold  the  Catholic  (Christians)  faith':- 
Which  faith,  except  every  one  do  keep  whole  and 
undented,  without  doubt  he  shall  perish  everlast- 
ingly (absque  dubio  in  ceternum  pesibit),"  and  at 
its  close  it  again  declares,  that  "  they  that  have' 
done  good  shall  go  into  life  everlasting;  and  they 
that  have  done  evil,  into  everlasting  fire  (in 
ignem  ceternum).  This  is  the  Catholic  (true- 
Christian)  faith." 

The  above  quotation  is  taken  from  a  creed 
which  expresses  the  belief  of  the  Universal 
Christian  Church. 


137 

A  passing  notice  at  the  Particular  Creeds  will 
now  occupy  our  attention.  These  creeds  came 
into  existence  at  or  subsequent  to  the  Reforma- 
tion. 

1.  Krautli  ('Conservative  Reformation  p.  212) 
says:  "  First  in  place,  and  first  in  importance 
among  those  great  documentary  testimonies  of 
the  Church  which  came  forth  in  the  Reforma- 
tion, is  the  Augsburg  Confession."  Its  date  is 
A.  D.  1530. 

Article  17  reads  as  follows:  ''Also  they  (the 
el  in  relies)  teach  that  in  the  consummation  of  the 
world  Christ  shall  appear  to  judge,  and  shall 
raise  up  all  the  dead,  and  shall  give  unto  the 
godly  and  elect,  eternal  life,  and  everlasting 
joys:  but  ungodly  men  and  the  devils  shall  be 
condemned  unto  endless  torments  (id  sine  fine 
crucientur).  They  condemn  the  Anabaptists, 
who  think  that  to  condemn  men  and  the  devils, 
shall  be  an  end  of  torments  (Jin em  pcznarum 
futuTum  esse)"     Krauth,  p.  23. 

2.  Thirty  nine  Articles  of  the  Church  of 
England  (A.  D.  1562). 

Article  8.  '•  The  three  creeds,  Nicene  Creed, 
Athanasius  Creed,  *  *  *  *  and  Ajjostles'  Creed, 
ought  thoroughly  to  be  received  and  believed; 
for  they  may  be  proved  by  most  certain  warrant 
of  Holy  Scripture." 

This  adoption   of  the   Athanasian  Creed  is  a 


138 

most  solemn  declaration  of  a  belief  in  its  double 
statement  in  favor  of  Eternal  Punishment,  as 
already  quoted. 

3.  Heidelberg  Catechism,  (A.  D.  1563).  Ques- 
tion 10:  "Will  God  suffer  such  disobedience 
•and  apostasy  to  go  unpunished  ?  Answer.  By 
no  means :  But  he  is  terribly  displeased  with 
our  inborn  as  well  as  our  actual  sins,  and  will 
punish  them  in  just  judgment  in  time  and  in 
•eternity."     (Schaffs'  Creeds  of  Christendom). 

4.  Symbola  Roma  (A.  D.  1563).  On  the  most 
lioly  Sacrament  of  Penance.  Canon  V:  "The 
loss  of  eternal  blessedness  (amissionem  ceternce 
beatitudinis)  and  the  eternal  damnation  (ceternce 
damnationis)  which  he  has  incurred."  (Schaff's 
Creeds) . 

5.  Symbola  Gra?ca  et  Russica,  A  D.  1643. 
Quaestio  CXXI.  "  All  souls  shall  return  to  their 
own  bodies  and  receive  in  them  the  perfect  and 
eternal  reward  {aluviov  fiic&dv)  of  their  deeds  and 
-actions,  but  the  bodies  of  the  wicked  also  will  be 
imperishable  because  they  are  to  be  tormented 
with  eternal  punishment  (ceternis  discrucianda 
supplicus)"  (Schaff's  Creeds). 

6.  Westminister  Confession  of  Faith  (1646) 
*"  For  then  shall  the  righteous  go  into  everlasting 
life,  ******  but  the  wicked  who  know  not 
'God,  and  obey  not  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ, 
shall  be  cast  into  eternal  torments,  and  be  pun- 


139 

ished   with   everlasting  destruction  (in   ceternos 
crudatus  detrudentur,  oeternaque  perditione  pun- 

ientur)  etc."     (Text  from  Hodge  on  Confessions 
p.  389). 

7.  Baptist  Declaration:  "That  the  wicked 
shall  be  adjudged  to  endless  punishment,  and 
the  righteous  to  endless  joy;  and  that  this  judg- 
ment will  fix  forever  the  final  state  of  men  in 
heaven  or  hell." 

8.  Methodist  P.  E.  Church:  "We  are  all 
born  with  a  sinful,  devlish  nature;  by  reason 
wrhereof  we  are  children  of  wrath,  liable  to  death 
eternal. "     (Buck's  Theo.  Diet.  p.  305). 

One  of  the  "Articles  of  Agreement  of  the 
Evangelical  Alliance"  says:  "  The  Immortality 
of  the  Soul,  the  Resurrection  of  the  Body;  the 
judgment  of  the  world  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
with  eternal  blessedness  of  the  righteous,  and  the 
eternal  punishment  of  the  wicked." 

We  will  now  consult  our  most  eminent  church 
historians  and  students  of  Christian  belief  and 
teaching.  Their  opinions  represent  a  wide  field  of 
investigation  and  will  of  necessity  be  impartial. 

"  The  pious  fathers  describe  the  eternity  of  the 
punishments  of  the  lost  in  emphatic  words." 
Gerhard,  Loci  Theologici. 

"All  these  (representative)  church  fathers  are 
unanimous  that  after  death  there  is  no  more 
reconciliation  for  sin,  and  therefore  the  godless 


140 

will  never  be  freed  from  their  pains."  Gieseler,. 
Hist.  Doc.  p.  248. 

"The  doctrine  of  Eternal  Punishment  con- 
tinned,  as  ill  the  preceding  period,  to  be  domi- 
nant in  the  creed  of  the  church/'  Neander, 
(Hist.  Christian  Church,  Vol.  II.  p.  676). 

"The  saved  were  then  to  be  transported  bodily 
to  the  eternal  bliss  of  heaven;  the  damned,  in 
like  manner,  were  to  be  banished  forever  to  a 
fiery  hell,  there  to  endure  uncomprehended 
agonies,  without  any  respite,  without  any  end. 
Such  was  undeniably  the  prevailing  view,  the 
orthodox  doctrine,  of  the  Patristic  church." 
Alger,  (Crit.  Hist,  Doc.  Fut,  Life.  p.  402). 

Of  St  Luke,  12:5,  it  is  said,  "  It  is  a  matter  of 
history,  out  of  the  question,  that  the  Apostolic 
church,  and  the  church  of  later  times,  took  it 
word  for  word  in  the  whole  of  its  apparent  value. " 
Taylor,  Ancient  Christianity. 

Without  quoting  extracts  verbatim,  we  will 
simply  refer  to  others  of  repute  whose  state- 
ments are  consonant  with  what  has  been  already 
deduced. 

Herzog's  Real  Encyclopaedic  (German),  Vol. 
VI.  p.  18:3. 

McClintock  and  Strong,  article  "Future  Pun- 
ishment."    Vol.  VIII.  p.  790. 

Edwards,  .Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Knowl- 
edge, article  "  Future  Retribution." 


HI 

Chambers'    Encyclopedia,    article   on  "Hell." 

Johnson's  New  Universal  Cyclopedia,  article 
-"Hell" 

Hagenb^ch,  Hist,  of  Doc.  Vol.  I.  p.  379. 

Shedd,  Hist.  Ch.  Doc.  Vol.  II.  p.  414. 

Schaff,  Hist.  Christian  Church,  etc.  p.  298. 

Kahnis,  Hist.  Gei\  Protestantism,  ch  2,  p.  108. 

Lecky,  Hist.  Rationalism,  Vol.  I.  p.  316. 

Stuart,  Am.  Bible  Rep.,  July  1840,  article 
""  Future  Punishment." 

Reisder,  (German)  Summary  of  the  Most 
Ancient  Christian  Doctrine,  Vol.  IV.  par.  34.  p. 
430. 

Hodge,  Sys.  Theo.,  Vol.  III.  part  IV.  Eschat- 
•ology.  ]).   869. 

Davidson,  Exegetical  Essays:  Philological 
Library,  Vol.  XXXVII,  p.  7. 

Townsend,  Lost  Forever,  p.  424. 

Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, Vol.  I.  ch  15,  p.  536,  says:  "  The  primitive 
church,  whose  faith  was  of  a  much  firmer  consis- 
tence, delivered  over,  without  hesitation,  to  eter- 
nal torture,  the  far  greater  part  of  the  human 
species.  *****  And  yet  what  ever  may  be 
the  language  of  individuals  it  is  still  the  public 
doctrine  of  all  the  Christian  churches." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CONCLUSION. 

-i. 

/*1  FTER  thus  arraying  the  facts  as  taught  by 
^T^  the  Fathers  of  the  First  and  Second  Patris- 
tic Periods,  the  Scholastics,  the  Creeds,  and 
Opinions  of  Snyods,  we  find  a  remarkable  unani- 
mity in  the  belief  of  the  Christian  church. 

The  Trinity,  the  personality  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  numerous  other  beliefs  fundamentally  re- 
lated to  Theology  have  stood  the  assault  of  the 
combined  enmity  of  God's  opposers.  The  church,, 
substantially,  have  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  in 
this  polemic  battle.  None  the  less  sanguine  is 
the  effort  to  wrest  from  the  visible  church  a 
truth,  the  absence  of  which  would  transform 
God's  earth  into  Pandemonium,  and  strengthen 
the  hands  of  rebels,  who  are  but  too  willing  to 
march  against  the  citadel  of  God  and  obliterate 
not  only  Hell  but  Heaven  itself. 

"What  none  can  prove  a  forgery  may  be  true; 
What  none  but  bad  men  .wish  exploded  must." 

No  tenet  nor  doctrine,  affecting  the  basal  prin- 
ciples of  the  Gospel  has  ever  been  universally 
held  but  for  a  short  time,  if  at  all. 


143 

The  importance  that  attaches  itself  to  the  fact 
that  human  beings,  have  been  and  are  devoted 
to  the  doctrine  of  future  punishment,  as  a  recog- 
nized principle  and  law  of  the  moral  universe,, 
has  varied  with  different  writers  upon  eschat- 
ology  as  they  have  had  different  ends  to  conserve. 
We  have  thus  presented  a  few  points  in  the 
rational  historical  and  scriptural  argument. 
They  prove  that  the  doctrine  of  retribution  is^ 
founded  in  the  very  constitution  of  nature  itself, 
in  Scripture,  in  the  Jewish  and  in  the  Christian 
Church. 

We  have  not  pretended  to  be  exhaustive  nor 
critical,  but  simply  bring  the  subject  before  our 
readers  in  the  manner  of  the  mild  discussion  of 
the  previous  pages. 

We  can  close  these  remarks  with  no  more 
appropriate  words  than  those  from  the  pen  of 
Rev.  Junius  B.  Reimensnyder.  He  says:  :<  It 
(Future  Eternal  Retribution)  must  have  a  foot- 
hold in  the  human  reason,  or  it  could  not  have 
maintained  itself  against  all  the  recoil  and  oppo- 
sition which  it  elicits  from  the  human  heart. 
Founded  in  ethics,  in  law,  and  in  judicial  reason, 
as  well  as  unquestionably  taught  by  the  author  of 
Christianity,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  doctrine  of 
Eternal  Retribution,  in  spite  of  selfish  prejudices, 
and  appeals  to  human  sentiment,  has  always- 
been  a  belief  of  Christendom.     From  theology 


144 

and  philosophy  it  has  passed  into  human  litera- 
ture, and  is  wrought  into  its  finest  structures. 
It  makes  the  solemn  substance  of  the  Iliad  and 
the  Greek  Drama.  It  pours  a  sombre  light  into 
the  brightness  and  grace  of  the  Aeneid.  It  is  the 
theme  of  the  Inferno,  and  is  presupposed  by  both 
of  the  other  parts  of  the  Divine  Comedy.  The 
epic  of  Milton  derives  from  it  its  awful  grandeur. 
And  the  greatest  of  the  Shakespearean  tragedies 
sound  and  stir  the  depths  of  the  human  soul,  by 
their  delineation  of  guilt  intrinsic  and  eternal." 


IV. 

fllMsccllancoue. 


i. 

SERMON 

PREACHED    AT    THE    OPENING    OF 

HOPE    MISSION. 


II. 
EMOTIONAL   RELIGION, 

VS. 
EMOTION    IN    RELIGION. 


Ill, 

.SERMON   OUTLINES. 


IV. 

HYMNS. 


WHY  ? 

REV.    M.    L.    SCHOOLEY. 

The  Master  came  to  his  garden, 
Among-  his  earthly  flowers, 

Searching  out  those  the  best  fitted 
To  plant  in  Heaven's  bowers. 

Some  had  bloomed  in  spring-time 

Ere  snow  had  passed  away, 
Others  had  blossomed  in  April, 
•  And  some  were  bright  in  May. 

These  were  now  done  with  their  labor 

Expecting  soon  to  die, 
And  so  they  wonld  never  answer 

To  transplant  up  on  high. 

But  here  there  is  one  just  budding 
Small  and  tender  and  sweet, 

And  there  is  one  lovely  blossom, 
Strong,  vigorous,  complete. 

So  the  Master  takes  his  trowel, 
Loosens  the  roots  with  care, 

Removes  the  brightest  to  Heaven, 
And  plants  them  over  there. 

How  we  miss  them  from  the  garden 
We  wonder  "why"  'tis  so: 

That  the  fair  and  bright  are  taken 
And  we  are  left  below. 

But  the}'  only  are  transplanted 

That  Paradise  may  be 
Brighter  than  gardens  of  earth-life 

For  Angel  eyes  to  see. 

We  weep  because  we  shall  miss  them, 
Their  absence  makes  us  sad, 

But  that  which  pleaseth  the  Master, 
Shall  ever  make  us  glad. 


SERMON   PREACHED    AT   OPENING  OF  HOPE  MISSION. 

'♦111'  HEREFORE  he  is  able  to  save  them  to 
%-V      the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by 
him.** — Heb.  7:25. 

The  word,  save,  has  a  concise  and  definite  mean- 
ing. It  scnns  to  be  eminently  befitting  that  it 
should  be  used  in  this  connection.  Whatever 
imaginary  failures  the  enemies  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  may  attribute  to  the  system  of  Christian- 
ity, it  remains  for  some  one  yet  to  prove  that 
Jesus  Christ  cannot  save  a  man:  and  when  we 
use  thf  word  save,  we  mean  save  in  its  broadest 
and  most  absolute  sense.  Whenever  the  term 
salvation  is  applied  to  any  physical,  mental,  or 
financial  calamity,  we  understand  that  word  in  its 
relation  to  those  ideas.  If  a  man  is  saved  from 
physical  calamity,  we  mean  that  he  is  rescued 
from  the  danger  or  environment  that  menaces 
his  life.  If  a  man  is  saved  from  a  mental  calam- 
ity, we  mean  that  he  is  delivered  from  those 
thoughts  and  those  conditions  of  the  mind  that 
are  about  to  launch  him  into  insanity,  or  some 
other  abnormal  condition  of  the  mind.  When 
a  man  is  saved  from  financial  rnin.  we  mean  that 
that  man  is  delivered  from  the  embarrassments  of 


148 

the  commercial  world.  I  see  no  reason  why  the 
term,  saved,  should  not  be  applied  scripturally  to 
the  subjects  to  which  the  Scriptures  refer,  the 
same  as  when  it  relates  to  man  physically,  men- 
tally, or  financially. 

The  calamity  that  menaces  the  human  family, 
and  the  environments,  state  and  condition  that 
the  Lord  regards  as  undesirable,  that  surround 
every    man    and    every   woman,    is   sin.     Jesus 
Christ  may  be  an  intelligencer:  Jesus  Christ  may 
be  a  reformer.     Where  His  religion  is  received 
and  the  theories  He  taught  are  practiced,  it  evi- 
dently will  produce  a  higher  moral   and   social 
condition.     But  the  main  feature  of  the  religion 
that  Jesus  Christ  taught  is   that   that   religion 
claims  to  be  able  to  save  its  subjects  from  their 
;sins.     Sin  is  a  calamity.     I  fear  the  world  looks 
upon  sin  with  too  much  complacency;  yet  it  is  a 
fearful  calamity.     The  whole  world  lies  under 
sin.     The  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  de- 
signed  to   save   the   human    family    from   that 
■calamity.     We  are  not  dealing   with  th«  proba- 
bility that  God  can  do  this  through  Jesus  Christ. 
We  come  to  the  Word  of  God,  and  we  accept  it 
.as  a  fact  that  it  can  be  done.     And  when  we  have 
made  this  concession,  we  open  the  way   for  you 
to  bring  in  any  sin  that  you  may  select,  and  allow 
you    to    demonstrate    the    truthfulness,    or   the 
fallacy  of  the  words,  "His  name  shall  be  called 


149 
Jesus,   for   he    shall  save  his  people  from   their 


sins. 


The  first  thin- that   I  want  you  to  notice  is  that 
deliverance  from  sin   rests  upon  Jesus  Christ — 
upon  no  other  than  the  man,   Jesus  Christ;    for 
the  results  that,  in  the  Word  of  God,  are  attri- 
buted  to  tin'  reception  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
were  not  predicated  of  any  church  instruction. 
If   we,    as  a  community,  should    undertake   the 
rescue  of  a  soul  from  any  particular  grade  or  de- 
gree of  sin,  then  we  would  allow  you  to  ridicule 
such    effort,     for    merely    human    power   never 
could  compass  this  deliverance.     The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  can  rescue  the  soul  from  sin.     Glory  to 
His  name!     When  I  look  at  Him  and  then  I  look 
at  you,  though  I  may  not  know  what  the  sin  may- 
be, if  it  is  an  action  of  immoral  quality,  and  has 
included  in  it  the  assent  of  your  will,  whether  it 
may  be  one  of  the  sins  of  society,  whether  it  may 
be  a  sin  that  has  the  bane  of  society  upon  it,  or 
whatever    may    be   its    character,    if    you   first 
demonstrate  to  me  that  it  is  sin,  I  believe   the 
Word  of  God  authorizes  me  to  state  that   Jesus 
Christ  can  save  from  it.     It   is  the  belief  of  this 
truth  that  gives  us  impetus,   when  we  are  well- 
nigh  overcome  with  discouragement.     It  is  this 
that  we  believe  will  reach   the  abandoned,   the 
lost,  and  the  degraded  of  this  city. 
We  are  not  here  in  the  interest  of  a  church  or 


150 

a  congregation,  we  are  not  here  in  the  interest  of 
a  clan;  we  are  here  in  the  interest  of  the  lost  and 
fallen.  We  come  not  in  our  own  strength,  hut 
in  the  power  of  God.  We  come  and  say  our  God 
•can  do  this  work. 

I  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  the  analogy  of 
the  Old  Testament  Jewish  worshipper.  When 
the  Jew  brought  his  turtle  dove,  his  lamb  his 
bullock,  and  his  goat  and  placed  them  upon  the 
altar  of  sacrifice,  what  did  he  expect?  The  Jew 
expected  that  that  sacrifice  would  cleanse  and 
ssive  him  so  far  as  his  sins  were  concerned.  You 
ask  if*he  had  any  foundation  for  such  an  expec- 
tation. Whether  he  had  or  not,  the  fact  re- 
mained that  that  Jew  believed  that  that  sacrifice 
would  save  him.  Let  us  refer  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Hebrews: — '4For 
if  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,  and  the  ashes 
■of  a  heifer  sprinkling  the  unclean,  sanctifieth  to 
the  purifying  of  the  flesh;  how  much  more  shall 
the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through  the  eternal 
Spirit  offered  himself  without  spot  to  God,  purge 
your  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the  liv- 
ing God?"  There  is  an  analogy  drawn  between 
the  Jewish  ceremonials  and  Jesus  Christ.  There 
is  a  comparison  between  the  time  of  shadows  and 
forms,  and  the  time  of  reality  and  power  of  the 
Gospel.  Now  if  the  blood  of  lambs,  bullocks, 
and  goats  would  cleanse  that  Jewish  worshipper, 


151 


who  would  say  that  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
does  not  or  cannot,  purge  one's  conscience  accord- 
ing to  the  Word  of  God. 

Christianity  compasses  reformation.  The  man 
who  becomes  a  christian  in  the  New  Testament 
sense  of  the  term  is  not  only  reformed,  but  he  is 
transformed  and  he  is  conformed. 

Notice  the  main  word  of  this  text,  "He  is  able 
also  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost."    That  word 
uttermost  is  very  peculiar.     Looking  at  the  ety- 
mology of  the  word  we  find  that  it  is  made  up  of 
the  union  of  two  Greek  words,  an  adjective  and 
a  noun;  the  adjective  is   ™c,   the  noun, is  reXoc, 
The  full  meaniug  of  the  word  is  perfection.   ^  The 
word  means   that  whatever  this  salvation  is,  it 
succeeds  in  saving  its  subjects  in  every  part  of 
their  lives.     And  when  Jesus  uses  language,  and 
when  he  uses  that  term,  he  means  it.     So   I  say 
to  you,precious  soul  to-night,  come,place  yourself, 
whatever  is  the  leading  sin  of  your  life  in  His 
liands,  for  there  is  efficacy  in  the   atonement   of 
Jesus  Christ  to  break  the  power  and  spell  of  that 
sin,  and  set  you  at   perfect   liberty.      Glory  to 
God!     Uttermost  Salvation!     This  is  the  salva- 
tion that  raises  the  fallen.     This  is  the  salvation 
that  reaches  into  the  gutter  and  takes  the  liber- 
tine and  raises  him  to  a  life  of  holiness.     This  is 
the  salvation  that  goes  to  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  world  and  finds  men  under  the  spell  of  false 


152 

religions,  and  breaks  their  chains,  the  heaviest 
chains,  and  sets  them  at  liberty.  But  it  is  not 
without  honor  in  its  own  country,  thank  God. 
The  more  closely  you  watch  the  subject  of  its 
power,  the  more  you  are  constrained  to  say  what 
a  wonderful  work  God  has  wrought.  The  more 
you  look  into  the  lives  of  those  who  come  under 
the  power  of  its  influence,  the  more  your  mind, 
my  mind,  the  mind  of  the  world,  conceives  it  to- 
be  the  ultimatum  of  its  kind.  Uttermost  salva- 
tion! Now,  if  I  were  alone  in  this  extreme  posi- 
tion, I  should  feel  somewhat  timid,  but  I  have 
behind  me  Alford,  Litchfield,  and  other  worthy 
and  reputable  Bible  students. 

This  word  is  encouragement  for  the  soul  that 
fears  to  trust  in  God.  This  word  has  in  it  the 
very  power  of  the  Gospel.  This  word,  if  you 
please,  represents  to  the  finite  mind  the  possibili- 
ties of  the  Christian  religion.  We  are  not  of 
those  who  believe  that  the  Christian  religion  has 
become  obsolete,  that  the  religion  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  must  necessarily  be  laid  aside.  It 
is  in  such  force  to-day,  thank  God,  that  the 
power  of  sin  is  being  broken  to-day,  and  that  the 
very  dominions  of  midnight  darkness  are  being* 
invaded.  This  uttermost  salvation  is  shaking 
every  continent  known  to  God,  it  is  invading 
every  nation,  and  is  coming  to  the  recognition  of 
almost  every  heart. 


153 

The  Christian  religion  is  different  from  all 
others  in  that  it  does  not  raise  an  ideal  of  holi- 
ness, ami  then  tail  in  securing  the  results  which 
we  expect.  It  does  not  teach  the  false  morality 
of  the  Greek  philosophers.  This  religion  is  not- 
only  absolute,  but  it  is  intolerant.  It  does  not 
effect  a  compromise  with  any  seeming  good  form 
of  religion.  It  does  not  have  anything  to  do 
with  other  religions.  It  is  the  beginning  and 
ending  of  itself.  It  takes  one  through  the  inter- 
mediate condition  into  the  perfectly  saved  con- 
dition of  experience.     Saved  to  the  uttermost ! 

Now,  there  are  three;  and  three  only,  principal 
thoughts  that  I  have  to  advocate.  The  first  is 
that  this  religion  saves  souls  froni  their  attitude 
towards  their  sins.  We  read  in  the  Word  of 
God,  "  Be  ye  not  conformed  to  this  world,  but  be 
ye  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  mind." 
Have  you  a  section  in  this  City  that  to-night  is 
under  the  power  of  sin  too  black  almost  to  men- 
tion ?  If  so,  how  are  we  to  recover  that  section  r 
There  must  be  introduced  into  the  minds  of  those 
engaged  in  this  sin,  an  antipathy  for  it.  By 
nothing  else  than  the  religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus- 
Christ  can  this  be  done.  I  think  the  Lord  knows 
how  to  approach  the  sonls  he  wishes  to  save:  that 
the  thing  that  Jesns  Christ  first  does  is  to  get  the 
minds  of  those  he  intends  to  save,  and  then  to 
turn  those  minds  against  the  sins  they  have  been 


154 

•committing.  When  shall  the  day  come  when 
there  shall  be  sounded  forth  from  every  pulpit 
the  religion  known  as  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  that  demands  the  eternal  hatred  of  the 
.sins  from  which  they  expect  to  be  delivered  ? 

After  this,  comes  naturally,  and  as  we  have 
reason  to  expect,  a  change  of  heart  with  reference 
to  these  sins.  The  Word  of  God  does  not  erect 
a  high  standard  of  holiness,  and  call  upon  us  to 
make  an  effort  to  attain  to  it,  but  never  attain  it. 
When  a  man  breaks  away  and  displays  a  desire 
toward  sin,  he  is  the  same  God  who  can  change 
the  attitude  of  that  man's  affections  or  heart 
towards  sin,  and  make  him  feel  the  loosening  of 
the  roots  of  sin,  constraining  him,  often,  in  the 
choice  and  desire,  to  leave  the  paths  of  sin.  Dear 
friends,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  has  a  system 
which  saves  a  man's  affections.  I  care  not  what 
may  be  the  temptation,  I  care  not  what  may  be 
the  attractions  that  surround  this  man,  or 
woman,  who  for  the  first  time  breaks  away  from 
sin.  I  care  not  what  may  be  the  inducements 
that  may  be  laid  before  this  man,  or  woman,  if 
he  or  she  secures  to  himself  the  power  of  this 
religion,  that  person  will  stand.  Almost  over- 
come, almost  worn  out,  yet,  thank  God,  a  victor, 
this  one  always  stands.  We  do  not  say  that 
there  will  be  no  struggle,  that  there  will  be  no 
temptation  to  go  back  to  the  haunts  of  vice.     To 


155 

make  a  statement  of  that  kind  would  be  to  sug- 
gesl  the  fact  that  a  man  is  saved  out  of  moral 
choice;  but  lie  is  saved  so  thai  his  mind  and  heart 
rise  up  against  the  sins  of  his  former  life,  and  he 
is  enabled  to  sustain  his  position.  It  will  lake 
this  religion  to  rescue  a  fallen  woman,  to  invade 
these  dens  of  iniquity,  and  offer  to  these  inmates 
that  which  will  save  them,  and  save  them  to  the 
uttermost. 

The  third  thought  is  that  it  changes  the  actual 
habits  and  practices  of  those  who  believe  in  it. 
It  not  only  instructs  the  mind  and  changes  the 
heart,  but  it  changes  the  actions.  Christ  will  be 
able  to  instruct  the  mind  and  comfort  the  heart, 
and  then  give  a  rule  of  life  by  which  the  subject 
of  salvation  can  keep  the  commandments  of 
God.  Uttermost  salvation  !  Glory  to  God  ! 
Now,  it  is  this  that  we  believe  must,  of  necessity, 
be  the  inspiration  of  this  work.  It  is  this  upon 
which  we  must  insist;  it  is  this  which  we  must 
carry  to  those  whom  we  expect  to  rescue  and  to 
;save.  If  we  go  with  ideas  of  sentimentalism,  or 
even  with  all  our  human  sympathies,  although 
inspired  by  a  good  desire  that  may  cover  the 
situation  for  a  time,  we  shall  fail:  but  what 
these  individuals  need  is  a  power  which  is  not  in 
human  sympathy,  but  from  God.  Otherwise, 
there  will  no  use  in  enlisting  their  attention. 
There  must  be  brought  into  their  lives  a  power 


156 

which  is  not  recognized  in  the  laws  of  society,. 
power  which  does  not  come  from  law,  but  a 
power  that  comes  from  the  Almighty  God,  and 
when  men  and  women  come  into  touch  with  this 
power,  they  find  this  change.  The  things  they 
once  loved,  they  now  hate:  tiie  thing  that  was 
once  upon  their  time  and  attention  largely,  now 
has  no  place.  The  living  God  has  taken  the 
throne  of  their  affections,  and  they  live  unto  God. 
I  should  despair,  if  I  expected  them  to  be  rescued 
by  human  sympathy.  But  thank  God,  Jesus 
has  died.  Jesus  Christ  has  descended  down  to 
the  very  gates  of  hell.  We  are  willing  to  con- 
cede that  the  powers  of  hell  are  striving  and 
must  strive  against  the  church  of  God.  But  we 
are  not  ready  to  say  the  victory  is  lost,  though 
we  are  little,  for  Jesus  is  the  captain  of  our  sal- 
vation, and  when  we  have  rescued  one  soul,  we 
see  more  coming.  We  shall  go  out  and  compel 
them  to  come,  for  if  they  come  once,  we  are  sure 
they  will  come  again.  Glory  to  God  !  "  Where- 
fore he  is  able  to  save  all  them  that  come  unto 
God  by  him."  This,  we  believe  to  be  the  remedy 
for  this  evil.  There  may  be  a  surface  work,, 
there  may  be  a  superficial  instruction  of  the 
mind  which  shall  reach  but  a  short  distance  into 
the  innermost  part  of  the  mind.  But  what  we 
need  most  of  all  is  the  salvation  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.     Mary  Magdalene  was  more  than  a 


15? 

reformed  creature.  She  was  conformed,  and 
transformed.  She  not  only  broke  away  from  the 
previous  practices  of  her  life,  but  she  was  devoted 
to  the  Lord,  tenderly  so.  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  Lord  himself  gave  recognition  to  her  devotion. 
Those  that  are  redeemed  from  the  lost  conditions 
of  vice  and  sin,  shall  be  raised  to  a  level  as  much 
higher  than  Adam  and  Eve  enjoyed  before  trans- 
gression, as  you  and  I  can  conceive  of.  There  is 
one  song  they  sing  in  Heaven  that  angels  and 
seraphim  do  not  sing.  There  shall  come  from 
those  lips,  "  Unto  him  that  has  washed  us,  in  his 
own  blood."  unto  Him  be  glory,  power,  and 
majesty,  and  wisdom.  Forever  and  ever.  The 
angels  and  seraphim  understand  not  this  mys- 
tery. What  a  wonderful  thing  it  is  to  be  saved  ! 
But,  dear  friends,  a  little  child,  born  in  Bethle- 
hem, has  had  his  hand  upon  the  world.  The 
stream  has  been  enlarging  and  enlarging,  and  up 
to  the  present  time,  there  are  more  than  fourteen 
billion  people  who  belong  to  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  marching  on  and  forward,  and  the 
time  is  coining  when  the  knowledge  and  the 
glory  of  God  shall  cover  the  world,  and  men  and 
women  shall  acknowledge  that  Christ  is  Lord 
over  all.  This  religion  appeals  to  men,  and 
when  it  comes  to  the  uttermost,  it  saves  them  to 
the  uttermost,  and  to  the  end. 
We  present  to   this   city  a  mission  work,  an 


158 

inspiration  work  to  all  that  are  lust.  We  believe 
that  they  can  be  saved.  We  rely  solely  upon 
God.  We  believe,  so  we  will  give  to  those  who 
need  it.  the  simple  story  of  Jesus  and  the  cross. 
We  will  carry  to  them  a  gospel,  burning,  living, 
coming  directly  from  the  heart  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  result  of  the  intercession  of  Jesus  with  the 
Father  for  the  lost,  and  we  believe  it  will  and 
must  succeed.  It  would  be  Avell  for  those  who 
believe  this  work  will  not  succeed,  to  remember 
what  Gamaliel  told  the  men  of  Jerusalem  before 
the  Sanhedrim.  "  If  this  thing  is  not  of  God,  it 
will  come  to  naught,  but  if  it  is  of  God,  ye  can- 
not overthrow  it." 


II. 

EMOTIONAL     RELIGION. 

vs. 

EMOTION   IN   RELIGION. 


S  there  such  a  tiling  as  emotion  in  Christianity  ? 
™  The  answer  to  this  question  is  unequivocal. 
Christianity  is  a  life.  If  analogy  is  traceable 
and  thinkable,  and  emotion  is  predicable  of 
nature,  religion  can  also  lay  claim  to  it.  We  are 
too  true  to  facts  to  deny  that  human  life  is  emo- 
tional. The  emotional  faculty  is  large  and  well 
developed  in  life.  The  facts  that  stir  the  human 
emotions  operate  quite  the  same  as  the  facts  in 
religious  life.  Nor  only  this,  but  the  same  set  of 
faculties  that  receive  and  recognize  facts  which 
produce  pain  or  pleasure  in  the  simple  human 
condition  also  receive  and  recognize  facts  result- 
ing similarly  in  the  moral  sphere. 

That  it  is  almost  universally  believed  that 
faith  is  the  negation  of  emotion — feeling,  no  one 
can  question.  The  Scripture,  however,  does  not 
warrant  any  antithesis.  Emotion,  necessarily 
and  consequently,  is  commensurate  with  faith. 

It  has  come  to  pass,  latterly,  that  he  who  gives 
expression  or  cognizance  to  religious  emotions  is- 


160 

relegated  to  obscurity  by  charging  him  with 
■enthusiasm  and  effervescence.  But  neither  of 
these  terms  is  foreign  or  repugnant  to  Chris- 
tianity, where  properly  used. 

We  do  not  expect  unquestioning  acquiescence, 
when  we  assert  that  the  religion  of  the  day  is  too 
•conservative,  as  to  its  results.  Abstruse  concep- 
tions and  metaphysical  argument  may  do  for  a 
foundation,  but  the  superstructure  must  be  vital- 
ized, hence  emotional. 

We  readily  concede  that  emotional  religion  is 
in  the  land,  we  do  not,  however,  seek  to  be 
critical  nor  technical  when  we  differentiate 
between  emotion  as  a  concept  in  religion  and 
emotional  religion. 

Humanly  speaking,  "emotion  has  its  end  in 
itself."  Religiously,  it  never  can  have,  and 
maintain  the  purity  of  the  religion  of  which  it  is 
a  part. 

Here  lies  the  discriminating  principle.  Ever 
has  it  been  true  that  religion  of  emotion,  and  the 
•emotional  religion  have  been  divorced,  not  so 
much  by  the  fact  of  emotion,  as  by  the  end  or 
use  of  it. 

There  cannot  be  too  much  importance  attached 
to  this  proposition.  It  may  truthfully  be  con- 
ceded that  the  false  religionist  has  an  equal 
.amount  of  emotion  with  the  true,  but  the  inspirer 
And  ultimatum  are  alwavs  different. 


101 

In  no  critical  nor  legitimate  sense  is  the  subject 
•charged  with  emotional  religion,  who  weeps, 
Langhs,  and  shouts  under  divine  inspiration,  and 
•consequently  ''gives  his  body  to  be  burned  and 
his  goods  to  feed  the  poor."  If  he  refuses  so  to 
•do  he  may  be  an  enthusiast.  The  body  may  be 
sacrificed  and  the  goods  given  when  the  inspira- 
tion and  result  are  foreign  to  holiness.  But  this 
thought  cannot  be  ridden  both  ways.  There 
must  be  emotion  to  an  effective  end,  there  can  be 
no  effective  end  without  it.  Joseph  Cook  says: 
"  It  would  be  a  sad  whim  in  the  art  of  metallurgy 
if  men  should  take  up  with  the  notion  that  a 
white  heat  is  not  useful  in  annealing  metals;  and 
.so  it  is  a  sad  whim  in  religious  life  when  we 
think  that  the  white  heat  we  call  a  religious 
excitement  is  not  useful  in  annealing  character 
-and  society." 

Every  branch  of  theosophy  may  not  kindle 
■emotion,  but  one  thing  is  true,  Christianity 
always  gives  birth  to  it.  Its  truths  are  not 
usual  nor  commonplace.  Does  a  man  really 
believe  he  shall  live  forever  in  Heaven  or  hell, 
and  that  this  finality  is  dependent  upon  sin  or 
holiness  ?  Do  these  thoughts  have  no  effect  upon 
the  emotions  ?  Does  a  man  keep  sensibly  before 
him  the  fact  that  the  way  is  "narrow"  and 
"  few"  there  be  that  find  it,  and  yet  sluggishly 
give  himself  to  the  "  perseverance  of  the  saints  ?" 


162 

Are  we  to  believe  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is; 
"  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy"  and  separate 
one  of  the  elements  of  this  trinitarian  unity  in 
extreme  importance  and  conclude  that  we  possess- 
the  kingdom  ? 

The  following  propositions  are  expressive  of  the 
truth. 

1.  Emotional  religion  seeks  the  aesthetic  and 
fastidious  as  an  end. 

It  uses  mediums  as  final. 

It  desires  an  educated  priesthood  at  the  sacri- 
fice of  holiness.  It  employs  musical  talent  as  a 
feature  of  attraction  and  entertainment. 

It  substitutes  form  and  liturgy  for  integrity 
and  character. 

It  stops  with  a  condition  and  state  of  emotiou 
which  ought  to  be  an  incentive  to  a  holy  end. 

It  plays  upon  the  imaginations,  and  causes  the 
sensations  to  tingle  under  its  imagery  and  figures, 
of  rhetoric,  but  leaves  the  unfortunate  subjects, 
unconvicted  and  unholy.    • 

It  describes  the  glories  of  Heaven,  but  touches 
lightly  on  the  conditions  of  its  attainment. 

It  arouses  the  emotions,  but  not  to  action,  and 
the  result  is  a  relapse  into  greater  inactivity. 

It  destroys  the  relish  for  simple  truth,  and 
characterizes  that  as  dry  and  disinteresting  which 
does  not  effect  a  phase  of  sensations  agreeable  to 
its  fancy. 


L63 

Splendid  form,  church  aggrandizement,  and 
ecclesiastical  pageantry  are  its  motives  and  aspi- 
rations. 

'!.  The  religion  of  emotion  docs  many  things 
thai  the  emotional  religion  performs,  but  goes 
further.  It  believes  hell  is  waiting  to  receive 
the  finally  impenitent,  and  strives  by  tears,  en- 
treaties, and  accredited  means  to  bring  the  sub- 
ject to  repentance. 

It  believes  sin  to  be  the  curse  of  the  world,  and 
secures  and  proclaims  victory  over  and  freedom 
from  its  thraldom.  It  believes  the  sound  of  the 
"church-going  bell"  quite  insufficient  to  reclaim 
the  disinterested  and  abandoned  classes  and  goes 
into  the  "byways  and  hedges"  and  compels  them 
to  come  in. 

It  believes  the  church  has  courted  the  world 
till  she  has  become  weak  and  compromising, 
and  raising  up  a  "standard  against  satan"  pro- 
tests. 

It  believes  that  Christ  and  his  religion  are  all- 
absorbing  obligations  and  gladly  gives  up  the 
world  and  "seeks  first  the  kingdom  of  God." 

It  believes  that  deliverance  from  sin  and  death 
are  thoughts  worthy  its  adoration  and  "rejoices 
with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory." 

It  does  all  it  does  to  "God's  glory"  that  redemp- 
tion shall  appear  unto  all  men,  even  though  it  re- 
fill ires  denial,  suffering,  and  death. 


1(34 

In  short,  it  disregards  policy  and  employs  truth 
as  its  weapon  of  warfare,  though  it  suffers  loss, 

sacrifices  friends,  and  signals  the  onslaught  of 
multitudinous  foes  and  troubles. 

If  this  disposition  produces  criticism  then  with 
the  worthy  apostle  it  triumphantly  professes 
that  "after  the  way  men  call  heresy  so  worship  I 
the  God  of  my  fathers." 

But  finally  the  world  needs  more  virtue  and 
using  the  emotions  as  a  channel  for  transmission, 
makes  them  only  a  step  to  the  sublime  end  of 
morals  and  heroism. 


III. 

SERMON    OUTLINES. 

Text — "Then  again  called  they  the  man  that  was 
blind,  and  said  unto  him,  Give  Cod  the  praise;  we 
know  that  this  man  is  a  sinner." — vSt.  John,  9:24. 

Intro: — Arguments:     (1)  Affirmation  of  friends; 

(2)  incident  in  affirmation  of  friends;  (3) 
affirmation  of  enemies;  (4)  incident  in 
affirmal  ion  of  enemies. 

Basis: — Sinlessness — the  demand  of  the  Chris- 
tianized mind.  Sinlessness: — (a)  positive 
rebellion;  (b)  willful  neglect. 

I.  St.  John  9:16.     "How  can  a  man  that  is  a 

sinner  do  snch  miracles." 
(a)  Miracle    conceded;    (b)    not    accorded    to 
Christ  because  lie  was  a  sinner. 

II.  St.    John  !)::>f.     '*  Now  we  know  that  God 

heareth  not  sinners." 
(a)   Christ   did   not  work  the  miracle    for  God 
heareth    not   sinners;  d>)    therefore   sin    a 
barrier  to  power  with  God. 

III.  St.  John  9:24.      "  We  know  that  this  man  is 

a  sinner." 
(a)  Not  a  compliment ;  (1>)  a  reflection— Argu- 
ment:— (1)  Christ  considered  human.     St. 
John  He.:;:;  :  (2)  sin,  the  objection  to  Him; 

(3)  therefore-  holiness  demanded  of  hu- 
manity. 

I.       When  may  we  attain  holiness? 

(a)  Cod  heareth  a  man  who.  (1)  worships  Him. 
(2)  does  His  will;  (b)  God  heareth  not 
sinners,  therefore  a  worshipper  and  will- 
dosr  is  sinless,  therefore  if  God  hears 
some,  some  are  sinless. 


166 

II.  Methods   for   attainment. 

(a)  Growth:  (1)  by  faith;  (2)  by  apprehen- 
sion, (a1  moment  we  do  not,  (b)  moment 
we  do;  (3)  by  moral  death 

(b)  At  death:  (1)  Sin  inheres  not  in  the  flesh  ; 
(2)  death  an  enemy  ;  (3)  it  cannot  be  by 
faith.     (The  time  idea  too  prominent) 

III.  Post  Mortem. 

(1)    Some   attain   here,    God   a   respecter:    (2) 

not  by  blood,  (a)  blood  here,  (b)  no  blood 

there;    (3)    God  puts   a  premium  on,    (a) 

ignorance,   (b)  rebellion. 

(Anniversary  sermon  at  Chesbrcugh  Seminary,  June 

1895). 


Text.  —  "Finally,  brethren,  farewell.  Be  perfect, 
be  of  good  comfort,  be  of  one  mind,  live  in  peace;  and 
the  God  of  love  and  peace  shall  be  with  you." — 11  Cor. 
13:11. 

I.  Farewell. 

(a)  Go;  lb"  prosperously;  (1)  advancement  in 
personal  holiness  ;  (2)  an  increase  in  num- 
bers ;  (3)  A  clearer,  more  radical  type,  as 
a  church. 

II.  Be  perfect. 

1.  (negatives*  (^  not  Adamic  ;  (b)  not  Angelic; 
(cj  not  absolute  ;  2.  < positives)  (a)  Chris- 
tianlike ;  ib)  in  love,  or  motive  ;  (cj  strive 
for  outward  perfection. 

III.  Good  comfort. 

(a)  That  you  know  the  truth  ;  (b)  that  you 
obey  the  truth  ;  (c)  that  others  are  seeking 
truth  ;  (d)  that  truth  prevails. 

IV.  Be  of  one  mind. 

(a)  Determine  to  know  all  of  God's  will  ;  (b) 
as  God's  will  is  revealed,  accept  it  ;  (c)  do 
not  vacillate. 


167 

"V.      Live  in  peace. 

(a)  Do  not  clamor  for  your  own  way  ;  (1))  keep 
a  humble  opinion  of  yourself;  (c)  accepl 
criticism,  if  true  ;  ignore,  if  false. 
VI.    God  of  love  and  peace. 

(a)  He  will  dwell  in  yon  ;  (b)  love  and  peace 
will  win  ;  (c)  these  attributes  of  God  arc 
inexhaustible,  eternal. 


Text — "  Therefore  let  no  man  glory  in  men,  for  all 
things  are  yours." — i  Cor.  3:21. 
Intro:— Salvation   with  its  hopes  and  destiny  is 

so  grave  that  it  is  only  safe  to  act  upon 

authority. 

I.  The    greatest   victory    any   one  can  attain 

is  freedom  from  the  bondage  of  people, 
(a)  "  Glory  in  men'"  is  the  great  barrier  to 
religious  advancement;  (b)  '"glory  in 
men"  stultifies  impressions  of  truth ;  (c) 
"glory  in  men"  produces  a  weak  compro- 
mising spirit. 

II.  The  modes  and  methods  of  glorying  in  men 

are  as  follows, 
(a)  The  assumption  that  the  type  of  piety 
around  you  is  the  Bible  type  ;  (b)  the 
modification  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  ideals  of. 
conduct  to  the  usual  and  ordinary  prac- 
tice around  you  ;  (c)  when  one's  desire  for 
and  estimate  of  the  associations  and  attain- 
ments of  others  is  not  based  on  holiness  ;  <d) 
the  use  of  policy  rather  than  piety. 


Text — "And  when  the  King  came  in  to  see  the 
■guests,  he  saw  there  a  man  which  had  not  on  a  wed- 
ding garment;  and  he  said  to  him,  Friend,  how  earnest 
thou  in  hither,  not  having  a  wedding  garment  ?  And 
he  was  speechless." — St".  Matthew  22:1 1-12. 


L68 

Intro: — The  parable  describes  the  offer  of  salva- 
tion to  Jews  who  rejected  it.  Then  the 
Gospel  is  sent  to  the  Gentiles. 

I.  Punishment  for  sin  is  the  result  of  rejection 

of  salvation. 

II.  Punishment   for   sin  is   the   result   of   neg- 

lected opportunities. 

III.  Punishment  for  sin  is  the  result  of  the  neg- 

lect of  what  has  already  been  provided. 

IV.  Damnation  will  be  so  reasonable  as  to  quiet 

forever  all  objections. 
Y.      The  King  decides  the  fate. 
VI.    Nature  of  the  destiny. 


Text — "Then  Peter  and  the  other  apostles  an- 
swered and  said,  we  ought  to  obey  God  rather  than 
men." — Acts  5:29. 

Intro: — Obedience  to  intelligence  vs.  God. 

I.  Obedience  to  man  is  destructive  as  follows: 
(a)     Man's     knowledge     limited  :      (b)      man 

naturally  opposes  God  ;  (1)  in  advice.  2) 
in  devotion,  (3)  in  integrity  to  principle  ; 
(c)  all  man's  ways  subject  to  ignorance  and 
delusion. 

II.  Obedience  to  God  safe. 

(a)  God  sees  end  from  beginning  ;  (b)  Go:1  is 
not  only  wise  but  good:  (c)  God  compels 
success  to  attend  his  advice,  if  obeyed. 

Text:— "But  of  him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of 
God  is  made  unto  us  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and 
sanetifieation,  and  redemption.  —  1  Cor.  1:30. 

Intro: — God  the  author  of  all  excellence. 
I.       Wisdom. 

(a)  Discovery  of  truth:  (I))  })reparation  for 
truth:  (c)  reception  of  truth. 


169 

II.  Righteousness,   (awowitw?),  properly  justifica- 

tion, 
(a)   Forgiveness;  (b)  renewal  of  soul;  (<•)  kept 
from  sin 

III.  Sanctification. 

(a)  Consciousness  of  impurity  ;  (b)  cleansing; 
(c)  filling. 

IV.  Redemption. 

(a)  Satisfaction  of  desires;  (b)  glorification  <>f 
body;  (c)  establishment  in  intelligence  and 
(•<  niirmation  in  holiness. 


Text:  —  "But  let  every  man  prove  his  own  work, 
and  then  shall  he  have  rejoicing  in  himself  alone,  and 
not  in  another.  For  every  man  shall  bear  his  own 
burden." — Gal.   6:4-5. 

Intro: — The  scope  and  evidenct  of  the  Gospel  do 
not  exceed  man's  intelligence,  and  man's 
finality  depends  upon  his  decision 

I.  Three  methods  of  proof. 

(a)  The  Bible;  (b)  the  Spirit;  (c)  the  conscience. 

II.  Rejoicing  in  self. 

(a;  Personal  righteousness;  (b)  harmony  with 
God;  (c)  readiness  for  judgment. 

III.  Every  man  bears  his  own  burden. 

(;i)  Circumstance  not  considered;  (b)  influences 
disregarded;  (c)  responsibility  for  all  we 
knew,   rejected,  or  might  have  known. 


Text. — "And  she  ."hall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  thou 
shalt  call  his  name  JESl\S;  for  he  shall  save  his  people 
from  their  sins." — St,  -Matt.   1:21. 

Intro: — The    habit    of    naming  persons  in   keep- 
ing wit  h  t  raits  of  character. 

I.  Christ  succeeds! 

II.  He  professes  to  save  from  sin. 


170 

III.  This  is  implied  in  His  mission. 

IV.  This  is  expected  in  all  those  who  seek  Him. 

V.  This  is  stated  of  those  who  belong  to  Him. 

VI.  What  sins  He  saves  from. 

(a)  Business  sins  :  (b)  social  sins  ;  (c)  secret 
sins  :  (d)  sins  of  omission  :  (e)  natural 
sins. 


Text:  —  "And  ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free." — St.  John,   8:32. 

"If  the  son,  therefore,  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall 
be  free  indeed.  " — v.  36. 

Intro: — Only  the  knowledge  of  and   conformity 
to  the  truth  brings  Freedom. 

I.  Three  methods  of  knowing  truth. 

(a)  By    Revelation:    (b)  by  the  Spirit:    (c)  by 
experience. 

II.  Freedom  impliess  deliverance  from: 

(a)  Sin:  (b)  false  hope:  (c)  personal  doubt:  (d) 
actions,  opinions,  influence  of  others. 

III.  The  Son. 

(a)  Xot  a  church-,  (b)  not  an  influence;  (c)  not 

a  theory. 
Text: — "Abstain     from     all     appearance    of  evil." 
— 1  Thess.  5:22. 

'•ArrfjtWt    arro   -cnroc  f'icovc  -orr/por." 

Intro  : — Laws  vs.  Gospel;  form  vs.  Spirit:  act  vs. 
motive:  bondage  vs.  liberty. 

I.  All  of  Grace  is  inward.     (God  looketh  upon 

the  heart. ) 

II.  The  manifestations  of  Grace  should  be  culti- 

vated.    (  "Study  to  shew. "  etc. .  *  'and  let  not 
your  good  be  evil."  etc.) 

III.  Abstain  from  all  appearance  of  evil. 

(a)  From  the  way   sinners   manifest   evil:    (b) 
from  actions  that  lead  to  evil. 


171 

(1)   Business  relations:  (2)   social  relations: 
(.'{)   personal  relations. 


Text.  —  "Be  thou    faithful    unto  death,    and    I     will 
give  thee  a  crown  of  life.  " — Rev.  2:10. 

Intro: — No  virtue  without  effort.  Polycarp, 
burnt  liii;.  Smyrna.  Faithful  in  every- 
thing up  to  death. 

I.  Faithful 

(a)  In  reproving  sin:  (1>)  in  supporting  holiness; 
(c)  in  our  devotion  to  our  religious  intelli- 
gence: (dj  in  defending  the  doctrines  of 
Scripture:  (e)  faithful  in  the  spiritual 
progress  for  life  unto  death. 

II.  Crown  of  life. 

(a)  No  sia;  (b)  nosorrow;  (c)  no  care:  (d)  no 
disappointments;  [e)  no  end. — Anne  of  Aus- 
tria to  Richelieu. 


Text.  —  "My   kingdom  is  not  of  this  world." — St. 
John  18:36. 

Intro: — Jesus  Christ  the  only  religious    teacher 
disclaiming  worldly  power. 

I.  The  conditions  for  citizenship  are  calculated 

to  divorce  one  from  the  world. 

II.  The  principles  and  laws  of  the  kingdom  are 

unworldly. 

III.  The  successes  are  unsatisfactory  to  the  world. 

IV.  The  ruler  is  Jesus. 

V.  The  result  and  terminus  are  a  real,  enduring. 

eternal  kingdom. 


Text.  —  "As  it  is  appointed  unto  men   once   to   die. 
hut  after  this  the  judgment. " — Heb.  9:27. 

Intro: — Life  and  death  are  mysterious. 
I.       Death  is  an  appointment  of  God. 


L72 

(a)   It  is  universal:  (b)  it  is  a  blast  to   earthly 
plans;  (c)  it  is  relentless,  sudden,  and  inex- 
orable. 
II.     The  judgment  will  come. 

(a)  Thorough;  (b)  righteous;  (c)  final;  (d)  eter- 
nal. 


TExt:  —  "Repent  ye  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at 
hand."— St.  Matt.  3:2;  4:17. 

Intro: — Sin  is  an  exponent  of  volition;  conscious 
act  of  sin  produces  condemnation;  condem- 
nation necessitates  sorrow    or   repentance. 

I.  Repentance  implies 

(a)  Sorrow  for  sin;  (b)    hatred  for  sin;    (c)  re- 
nunciation of  sin. 

II.  Repentance  produces 

(a)  Confession;  (b)  contrition;  (c^  faith. 

III.  Repentance  prepares  the  soul  for  the  recep- 

tion of  Character. 


Text. — -"For  when  they  shall  say,  Peace  and  safety; 
then  sudden  destruction  cometh  upon  them  *  *  *  and 
they  shall  not  escape." — 1  Thess.  5:3. 

Intro: — Peace  and  safety  are  objects  worthy  of 
pursuit. 

I.  ■     Safety  depends  upon  peace,   but  there   may 

be  a  peace  with  no  safety. 

II.  Physical  and  tangible  safety. 

(a)   Surroundings:  (b)  money;  (c)  society. 

III.  Religious  safety. 

(a)  Ignorance  (willful);  (b)  false  hope;  (c)  de- 
lusion. 

IV.  Sudden  destruction. 

(a)  Blasted  hopes;  (b)  enlightened  understand- 
ing; (cj  no  hope  for  a  recovery. 


IV. 

HYMNS. 

I'D  RATHER  STAY  HERE. 

'The  harvest  of  souls  is  now  whitening, 
The  winter  of  death  draweth  near; 

And  many  who  now  live  in  time-life 

Are  saved  and  their  Lord  keeps  them  near. 

CHORUS. 

I  long  to  stay  here,  I  long  to  stay  here; 

I'd  toil,  gladly  toil  for  Him, 
I  'd  toil  for  the  Master  so  dear  ! 

I'd  gladly  toil  on  in  the  harvest  for  souls; 
Oh,  I  long,  how  I  long  to  stay  here  ! 

Now  since  I  am  sav'd  by  God's  power, 

I  ask  not  to  go  nor  to  stay; 
For  living  in  Christ  as  my  bower 

E'en  here  is  continual  day. 

And  thus  I  toil  on  at  His  bidding, 
Encouraged,  upheld  in  the  strife; 

I  care  not  for  blessings  or  chidings, 
For  I  live  in  eternal  life. 

So  when  I  am  sav'd  with  the  perfect, 

In  glory,  forever  and  aye, 
I'll  sing  with  the  saints  of  all  ages, 

'Tis  blessed  to  go  or  to  stay. 


174 
LORD,   I'M  THINE. 

Lord,  I'm  Thine,  yes,   Thine,  forever; 

Bod}-,  spirit,   soul  and  time, 
Sinful  chains  control  me  never; 

I'm  united  to  the  vine. 
Hark  !     I  hear  the  sirens'  music. 

Once  it  thrilled  my  soul  with  joy; 
Butnowthesongof  Christ's  redemption, 

All  my  energies  employ. 

Farewell,  sin,  your  power  is  broken, 
Jesus  rules  as  King  and  Priest, 

And  in  each  moment  of  earth 's  conflict. 
He  will  give  sufficient  grace. 

Friends  may  call  me  from  this  rapture, 

Loved  ones  say, '  'you  owe  us  much, ' ' 
Claiming  thus  my  heart's  devotions; 

They  would  kill   with    love's  kind 
touch. 
Thus  are  all  1113-  heart-strings  broken, 

And  my  tears  flow  freely  down, 
But  self-denial  is  a  token, 

Of  my  never  fading  crown. 

Do  the  saints  await  us  yonder  ? 

And  their  faces  shall  we  see  ? 
Dare  we  earth 's  attractions  ponder  ? 

Only  Christ  is  victory. 
Sinner,  pray,  no  longer  tarry; 

On  the  dang'rous  ground  of  sin. 
Oh!  haste  thee  !   up,  no  time  to  linger,. 

For  the  night  is  setting  in. 


175 

my    decision! 

[esus,  Master,  stop  and  listen, 

While  I  my  decision  make; 
I've  from  me  my  idols  riven, 

Henceforth  I  of  Thee  partake. 
Friends,  Companions,  reputation, 

Life,  emoluments  I  spurn; 
Help  me  in  my  dedication, 

As  I  from  the  worldling  turn. 

CHORUS. 

I  turn,  I  turn,  now  I   turn, 

I  turn  from  sin  and  woe, 
I  gladly  turn  ! 
I'll  take  the  pathway  of  the  Lamb, 

Wherever  He  doth  go  ! 

Jesus,  Master,  stop  and  listen, 

While  I  my  decision  make; 
There's  no  good  on  earth  I  covet, 

Tho'  it  does  my  heart-strings  break. 
Ease,  affluence,  aggrandizement, 

Earth's  attractions  cannot  win, 
While  in  this  decisive  moment 

I  choose  Christ  the  Nazarene. 

Jesus,  Master,  stop  and  listen, 

While  I  my  decision  make; 
Tho'  I  see  the  wicked  prosper, 

From  my  soul  the  spell  I'll  shake, 
I  dare  trust  Thee,  Thou  despised, 

When  earth's  offers  do  entice, 
For  I  want  the  "  gold  of  fire,  " 

And  am  ready  with  the  price. 


176 

Jesus,  Master,  stop  and  listen, 

While  I  my  decision  make; 
I  will  follow  to  Golgotha, 

Tho'  my  friends  with  fear  do  quake. 
Fiery  furnace,  den  of  lions, 

Self-denial,  yea,  and  scorn: 
All  of  these  my  soul  doth  long  for, 

Shore  lines, hopes, and  loves  are  torn. 

Jesus,  Master,  stop  and  listen, 

While  I  my  decision  make; 
In  my  heart  shall  dwell  no  seed-sin, 

At  the  Fount  my  thirst  I'll  slake. 
Death  ma}'  come,  and  dissolution, 

Satan  ply  his  fiendish  art; 
Come,  thou  Lion,  Prince  of  Judah, 

Cleanse,  and  keep  my  willing  heart. 


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Rev.  Aura  Claire  Showers,  a  sketch 

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